Objective To prospectively document changes in adolescents’ sleep before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine their impact on adolescents’ perceived stress. Methods Sixty-two typically developing adolescents participated in the study before (Time 1: January 15 to March 13, 2020) and during (Time 2: May 15 to June 30, 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. At Time 1, each participant’s sleep pattern was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy and sleep logs for seven consecutive nights. Adolescents completed a battery of questionnaires in which they reported on their sleep schedule, duration, and quality, as well as their activities at bedtime, their daytime sleepiness, and their social/emotional behavior. The participants’ parents provided demographic information. At Time 2, each participant completed a sleep log, the same battery of questionnaires regarding sleep, and the Perceived Stress Scale. Results (1) Adolescents’ reported sleep was of longer duration and on a delayed schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic. (2) A larger proportion of adolescents reported meeting or exceeding the recommended amount of sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic sleep. (3) “Social jet lag” disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. (4) A shorter reported sleep duration and higher level of arousal at bedtime at Time 1 were significant predictors of adolescents’ perceived stress at Time 2—during the COVID-19 pandemic. (5) A higher levels of arousal at bedtime and lower reported sleep quality at Time 2 were concurrently associated with higher levels of perceived stress among adolescents, even when we controlled for the levels of pre-pandemic emotional or behavioral issues, sleep duration, or sleep quality. Conclusion Sleep duration and cognitive-emotional arousal, which are both modifiable behaviors, were associated with adolescents’ perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. These behaviors could be useful targets for preventive interventions aiming to reduce adolescents’ stress in the face of stressogenic situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Introduction Circadian tendencies are associated with individual differences in preferred timing of behaviour. Sleep hygiene encompasses a variety of habits that are necessary for healthy. Given the later bedtimes of individuals with evening circadian preferences, more time is spent being awake in the evening and this could be associated with increased or longer engagement in poor sleep hygiene. Specific sleep hygiene practices that are common in adolescents with high evening preferences may therefore be a target to improve sleep. However, the relationship between specific sleep hygiene behaviours and circadian preferences in adolescents has not been examined. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between circadian preference and specific domains of sleep hygiene behavior. Methods 127 adolescents (86 female) between 13 and 18 years old (M = 14.83, SD = 1.20) participated in the study. Circadian preferences were measured by the Morningness-Eveningness subscale of the School Sleep Habits Survey. Sleep hygiene was measured using the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS). Results Higher eveningness scores were significantly negatively associated with the ASHS physiological, behavioural arousal, cognitive emotional arousal, sleep environment, sleep stability, daytime sleep, substances use factors (r = -.20, p = <.05, r = -.27, p = <.01, r = -.32, p = <.01, r = -.18, p = <.05, r = -.41, p = <.01, r = -.28, p = <.01, r = 0.20, p = <.05 respectively) and with total sleep hygiene score (r = -.45, p = <.01). Conclusion Higher eveningness preferences in adolescents is significantly associated with poorer sleep hygiene in all domains with the exception of bedtime routine. Behavioural arousal, cognitive emotional, and sleep stability domains show the strongest inverse correlations. These findings could be used to inform the development of tailored sleep health interventions for adolescents with strong evening tendencies Support Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) support for Dr. Reut Gruber.

Introduction Studies examining adolescents’ sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic yielded inconsistent results, with some studies finding a significant increase in insomnia symptoms but others finding no change. A majority of these studies used retrospective or concurrent reports of insomnia symptoms and did not include objective sleep measures, making it impossible to know the extent to which the reported symptoms were associated with actual sleep patterns. In addition, these studies did not account for factors that might have biased adolescents’ subjective reporting of insomnia such as negative emotions or high levels of pre-bedtime cognitive arousal. The goal of the present study was to examine the associations of self-reported symptoms of insomnia among typically developing adolescents with their emotional experiences, cognitive arousal at bedtime, and objective sleep measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Participants. Seventy-six adolescents (33 female, M(SD) age = 13.74(0.87) years). Procedure. Each participant’s sleep pattern was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy and a sleep log for seven consecutive nights in 2021. Adolescents provided information regarding their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic using the COVID-19 Adolescent Symptom & Psychological Experience (CASPE) questionnaire; information regarding their arousal at bedtime using the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale and information regarding the insomnia symptoms using the Insomnia Severity Index. Results Principal-component analysis produced a three-factor solution for the CASPE labeled as Negative-Anxious, Negative-Angry and Positive Emotions. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine the cross-sectional associations among adolescents’ emotional responses and subjective and objective sleep measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being a girl, reporting high level of pre-bedtime cognitive arousal and high Negative-Anxious emotions accounted the explained variance in adolescents’ self-reported insomnia symptoms. Actigraphy measured sleep efficiency, latency or duration did not increase significantly the explained variance. Conclusion These findings suggest that documentation of adolescents’ insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic might have captured adolescents’ negative emotions rather than their objective sleep patterns. Limitations The cross-sectional design of this study limits the ability to determine causality. Support (if any) CIHR, SSHRC

The objective of this study was to characterize the associations between light exposure in the free-living environment and multiple dimensions of sleep health of typically developing adolescents. Fifty-six (29 girls, 27 boys) typically developing adolescents (mean age = 13.59, SD = 0.89, range = 12-17 years) participated. For six consecutive nights, sleep was assessed in the home environment using actigraphy. During the same period, participants were asked to fill out a daily sleep log and a daily light exposure log, and to complete questionnaires regarding their alertness and subjective sleep satisfaction. Longer self-reported exposure to daylight in the morning was associated with longer objectively measured sleep duration. Longer self-reported exposures to electronic devices in the evening were associated with later objectively measured sleep onset and offset times, shorter sleep duration, and greater day-to-day sleep variability. Longer morning exposure to outdoor light was associated with a longer sleep duration. Self-reported light exposure was not associated with sleep satisfaction, alertness/sleepiness, or sleep efficiency. Among the covariates, circadian preference accounted for the highest percentage of variance. Adolescents’ sleep health is associated with the self-reported duration of exposure to daylight in the morning and to electronic devices in the evening.

Introduction Developmental changes in adolescence make adolescents prone to experiencing negative mood and increased emotional lability. Experimental studies employing sleep restriction paradigms have shown that decreased sleep increased negative affect, but a gap exists regarding the association between sleep disorders and negative affect in adolescence. The objective of this study was to examine this association. It was hypothesized that higher levels of reported symptoms of sleep disorders would be associated with lower positive affect and higher negative affect in adolescents. Methods Participants: 101 adolescents (65 females) aged between 13 and 18 years old (M=14.69, SD=1.16). Measures: Sleep Disorders Inventory for Students was used to measure symptoms of sleep disorders and sleep patterns were measured objectively using actigraphy. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) was used to measure positive and negative affect. Results Correlational analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between symptoms of sleep disorders, sleep patterns, and positive and negative affect. Higher levels of reported symptoms of sleep disorders were associated with later bedtimes (r= .26, p< .01), shorter sleep durations (r= -.20, p< .05), increased sleep onset latency (r= .21, p< .05), decreased sleep efficiency (r= -.23, p< .05), and less immobile minutes (r= -.23, p< .05) measured by actigraphy. Higher levels of reported symptoms of sleep disorders were associated with lower levels of positive affect (r= -.20, p< .05) and higher levels of negative affect (r= .39, p< .001) Conclusion Reported symptoms of sleep disorders were associated with overall poorer sleep patterns in adolescents as well as decreased positive affect and increased negative affect. Sleep specialists assisting adolescents with sleep disorders should inquire about mood regulation. Support Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve internationally, increasing levels of psychological stress in adolescents around the world, and thereby increasing their risk for emotional disorders associated with chronic stress. This ongoing threat to adolescents’ mental health requires that we identify factors that contribute to their ability to cope with situations shown to carry significant risks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., their resiliency).Negative emotions are associated with chronic stress, and factors that reduce levels of negative emotions are associated with improved resiliency. Healthier sleep is associated with lower levels of negative emotions. Cognitive reappraisal (changing the way one thinks about potentially emotion-eliciting events) is an emotional regulation strategy that downregulates negative emotions. However, there is little information about the associations between sleep quality, emotional regulation, and resiliency in adolescents. The present study sought to fill this gap by examining the associations between adolescents’ sleep quality and disturbances, emotional regulation strategies and adolescents’ resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Forty-five adolescents (M=13.47, SD=1.7 years) participated in the study during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada (May 15 to June 30, 2020). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to assess adolescents’ self-reported sleep quality and disturbances. The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was used to assess respondents' tendencies to regulate their emotions using cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale was used to measure resilience. Behavioral/emotional problems were assessed before the pandemic using the Youth Self Report (YSR). Results Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses revealed that lower levels of sleep disturbances and frequent use of cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotions were associated with a higher level of resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic, above and beyond the contributions of gender or pre-pandemic emotional or behavioral problems. Conclusion Better sleep quality and the habitual use of an emotional regulation strategy that is effective in downregulating negative emotions are associated with higher resiliency in adolescents facing the COVID-19 pandemic. The cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow the inference of causation. Support (If Any) CIHR 418638 to Reut GruberRGPIN-2015-04467 to Reut Gruber