Perceived Partner Responsiveness Predicts Better Sleep Quality Through Lower Anxiety

Abstract

The present study investigated whether perceived partner responsiveness—the extent to which individuals feel cared for, understood, and validated by their partner—predicted subjective sleep problems and objective (actigraph-based) sleep efficiency through lower anxiety and depression symptoms. A life span sample of 698 married or cohabiting adults (35–86 years old) completed measures of perceived partner responsiveness and subjective sleep problems. A subset of the sample ( N = 219) completed a weeklong sleep study where actigraph-based measures of sleep efficiency were obtained. Perceived partner responsiveness predicted lower self-reported global sleep problems through lower anxiety and depression and greater actigraph-assessed sleep efficiency through lower anxiety. All indirect associations held after controlling for emotional support provision to the partner, agreeableness, and demographic and health covariates known to affect sleep quality. These findings are among the first to demonstrate how perceived partner responsiveness, a core aspect of romantic relationships, is linked to sleep behavior.

A Social Psychological Perspective on the Links Between Close Relationships and Health

“…High quality sleep requires down-regulation of arousal and anxiety, which is precisely what partner responsiveness serves to alleviate. Recent data from our group indicates that partner responsiveness indirectly predicts increased subjective sleep quality and objective (actigraph-assessed) sleep efficiency through decreased anxious arousal (Selcuk, Stanton, Slatcher, & Ong, 2016). Corroborating these findings, both types of insecure attachment styles have also been linked to poorer sleep (Adams, Stoops, & Skomro, 2014).…”

The interplay between relationship effectiveness, life stress, and sleep: A prospective study

“…To date, research examining the effects of relationship quality or stress exposure on sleep outcomes has relied on either cross‐sectional data (e.g., Benham, ; Drake et al, ) or data regarding daily variations in relationship quality or stress on sleep over brief periods of time (e.g., Kane et al, ; Selcuk et al, ). Although this important work has demonstrated the significance of concurrent interpersonal processes and stressors for sleep quality and duration, the extent to which relationship functioning and stress exposure exert cumulative impacts on sleep over time remains unclear.…”

“…In other words, people who have a history of engagement in high-quality relationships that can promote social belongingness and emotional security should get better sleep. Although no research to date has tested whether patterns of experiences and behaviors across relationships predict sleep, a sizable body of research has shown that positive aspects of current romantic relationships-such as greater daily self-disclosure (Kane, Slatcher, Reynolds, Repetti, & Robles, 2014), greater perceptions of partner responsiveness (Selcuk, Stanton, Slatcher, & Ong, 2016), greater marital harmony (Prigerson, Maciejewski, & Rosenheck, 1999), and increases in marital quality over time (Lee, Chopik, & Schiamberg, 2017)-all predict better sleep quality and/or duration. Conversely, greater relationship conflict is associated with poorer sleep quality (Hicks & Diamond, 2011), shorter sleep duration (for women), and difficulties falling asleep (El-Sheikh, Kelly, & Rauer, 2013).…”

“…Six potential confounds routinely included in prior research on relationships, stress, and sleep (Bixler, Vgontzas, Lin, Vela-Bueno, & Kales, 2002;Fincham, Beach, Harold, & Osborne, 1997;Selcuk et al, 2016;Tennant, 2002) were treated as covariates in the final model 1 to provide evidence of the model's robustness: participants' sex, ethnicity (White/non-Hispanic vs. Other), income (assessed at ages 32 and 37), education (assessed at ages 23, 32, and 37), depressive symptoms (assessed at ages 23 and 37), and prenatal maternal education.…”

Lot-Sizing for a Product Recovery System with Quality-Dependent Recovery Channels

“…Recent studies provide strong evidence for associations between greater PPR and favorable health and well-being outcomes in adulthood. For example, PPR is linked to improved pain regulation (16)(17), higher eudaimonic well-being (i.e., well-being associated with achieving one's potential and finding meaning in life, 18), better subjective sleep quality and objective sleep efficiency (19), and steeper diurnal cortisol slopes-which are linked with better physical health outcomes (20)-over10 years (21). Of particular importance to the present study, Selcuk and Ong (22) found that PPR interacts with social support receipt to predict longevity; specifically, receiving high social support predicted greater risk of mortality a decade later when PPR was low, whereas receiving high social support was unrelated to mortality risk when PPR was high.…”