Date of Graduation

8-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Ellen Leen-Feldner

Committee Member

Ana Bridges

Second Committee Member

Ivan Vargas

Keywords

Emotion Regulation;Reappraisal;Sleep;Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

Sleep and emotion regulation are important components of mental health and may function interdependently in the development and maintenance of mental health disorders. Unfortunately, there is limited experimental work on the impacts of sleep deprivation on reappraisal, a common emotion regulation strategy, in adults. Furthermore, increases in negative and decreases in positive affect are often associated with sleep loss. This study aimed to examine the relation between sleep deprivation and emotion regulation by asking adults to reappraise a series of vignettes before and after a randomly assigned night of sleep deprivation or normal sleep. Additionally, measures of self-reported emotion regulation and affect were collected before and after sleep manipulation. Participants were 76 undergraduate students (39 men, Mage = 19.14; SD = 1.26). Results suggest sleep-deprived participants struggled to reappraise as indicated by more negative valence, as predicted. Additionally, there was a decrease in arousal, contrary to hypotheses. Furthermore, sleep-deprived participants experienced less positive affect compared to their baseline measures and the control group at post-manipulation, as predicted. Both groups showed a decrease in negative affect across timepoints. Lastly, contrary to predictions, there were not significant differences in self-reported reappraisal as a function of sleep condition. This study addresses a key gap in the extant literature and informs our understanding of the consequences of sleep loss on reappraisal and affect, factors germane to the development, maintenance, and treatment of mental illness.

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