Maintaining sleep and physical activity alleviate mood instability

Abstract

Objective: Building on previous work indicating that mood instability is the hallmark of neuroticism, our aim was to examine whether changes in exercise, sleep duration and leisure predicted decreases in mood instability with time.

Methods: We used data from 3374 participants of the British Health and Lifestyle Study who answered the Eysenck Personality Inventory-Neuroticism subscale (EPI-N) and the General Health Questionnaire on two occasions 7 years apart. We predicted mood instability scores derived from the EPI-N at follow-up using self-reported changes in exercise, sleep duration and leisure hours between the two time points as independent variables.

Results: We confirmed the observation that mood instability decreases with age. Maintaining one's exercise at baseline level decreased mood instability (beta=-0.21) while sleeping less increased mood instability (beta=0.14). Change in leisure time was not independently related to mood instability after accounting for the two other lifestyle factors.

Conclusion: Personality, at least with regard to mood instability, can be modified by lifestyle factors. Exercise and sleep support mood stability and could be important components of preventative mental health (as well as physical health) benefits.

Keywords: Mood instability; Personality; Physical activity; Sleep.