Self-Compassion, Other-Compassion, and Subjective Sleep Quality Indicators in a Clinical Population: An Experience Sampling Study

Abstract

Objectives: Higher compassion has been linked with greater subjective sleep quality indicators; however, within-person, longitudinal studies exploring this relationship are limited. We examined how self-compassion and other-compassion relate to subjective sleep quality indicators (sleep hours, sleep quality, and sleep recovery). Specifically, we analyzed the within-person link between compassion and sleep to assess both group-level nomothetic effects and the individual-level heterogeneity of these effects. Method: In total, 154 adult inpatients and outpatients experiencing chronic transdiagnostic disorders engaged in a 1-week study using experience sampling methodology (ESM). The ESM sampled self-compassion, other-compassion, sleep quality, and mood six times daily. Results: Self-compassion and other-compassion were positively correlated with subjective sleep quality indicators and mood in within- and between-person analyses. Sleep recovery was found to be the sleep indicator most strongly linked to compassion. Controlling for mood, within-person multilevel models revealed that higher daily average self-compassion predicted better sleep recovery the next day. Similarly, higher sleep recovery predicted greater self-compassion and other-compassion the next day. Multilevel model-based estimates of the within-person relationships between self-compassion and sleep recovery were found to be heterogeneous across the sample. Most of the sample, however, revealed a positive relationship between self-compassion and sleep recovery. Conclusions: These findings highlight the bidirectional relationship between self-compassion, other-compassion, and sleep recovery, and suggest that compassion-focused interventions may improve sleep recovery in clinical populations. This supports the soothing capacity of self-compassion and provides further evidence for the association of sleep with fundamental psychological processes like mood and compassion. Preregistration: This study was not preregistered.