Why so slangry (sleepy and angry)? Shorter sleep duration and lower sleep efficiency predict worse next-day mood in adolescents

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationships of actigraphic nighttime sleep duration and quality with next-day mood among urban adolescents using a micro-longitudinal design.

Methods: A subsample (N = 525) of participants from the Fragile Families & Child Wellbeing Study (mean age: 15.4 years; 53% female; 42% Black non-Hispanic, 24% Hispanic/Latino, 19% White non-Hispanic) in the United States between 2014 and 2016 concurrently wore a wrist actigraphic sleep monitor and rated their daily mood in electronic diaries for about 1 week. Multilevel models tested the within-person temporal associations of nightly sleep duration and sleep maintenance efficiency with next-day reports of happiness, anger, and loneliness. The models also tested the between-person associations of sleep variables and mood. Models adjusted for sociodemographic and household characteristics, weekend, and school year.

Results: After nights when adolescents obtained longer sleep duration than their usual, they reported lower ratings of anger (B = -.03, p < .01) the next day. After nights when adolescents had higher sleep maintenance efficiency than their usual, they reported higher ratings of happiness (B = .02, p < .01) the next day. Adolescents who had longer average sleep duration reported lower ratings of anger (B = -.08, p < .01) and loneliness (B = -.08, p < .01) compared to others. There was no within-person association of sleep duration or efficiency with loneliness. Sleep duration was not associated with happiness between adolescents, and sleep maintenance efficiency was not associated with any mood measure between adolescents.

Conclusions: Improvements to nightly sleep may help increase happiness and decrease anger the following day in adolescents. Promoting sleep health is recommended to improve mood.

Keywords: actigraphy; adolescents; daily diary; mood; sleep.

Figure 1.. Nighttime sleep variables and next-day mood

Multilevel models examined the within-person association between a given night’s sleep interval duration or sleep maintenance efficiency and next-day ratings of mood. Significant within-person findings (p<.05) are displayed in adjusted regression plots with 95% confidence intervals. Models adjusted for sex, age, race/ethnicity, primary caregiver’s education, family structure, household income, school year, and weekdays/weekends. Nighttime sleep maintenance efficiency (left) was defined as the percentage of time spent asleep after first falling asleep and before waking up the next day and positively predicted next-day happiness. Nighttime sleep interval duration (right) was calculated as the number of hours between first falling asleep and waking up the following day (including nighttime awakenings) and negatively predicted next-day anger.