0963 EMOTION REGULATION PREDICTS PERCEIVED SLEEP DIFFICULTY IN HEALTHY ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescence is a time of significant social and neurobiological change, resulting in heightened risk for sleep problems and emotion regulation deficits. Poor sleep is associated with difficulties in emotion regulation in adolescents, but few studies have examined how emotional difficulties relate to both perceived and actual sleep patterns in this age group. The current study examined the extent to which emotion regulation predicts subjective and/or objective sleep difficulties in 13-17 year olds. Method(s): Forty healthy adolescents aged 13-17 years (M = 14.88, SD = 1.30) completed self-report measures of sleep and 6 nights of actigraphy. Adolescents completed the Sleep Self-Report Scale and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale which includes a total score and 6 subscales evaluating difficulties in emotional responses, goal-directed behavior, impulse control, emotion regulation strategies, and emotional clarity. Actigraphy variables included sleep onset latency, sleep duration, wake after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency, averaged across 6 nights. Result(s): Participants with greater difficulties in emotion regulation reported increased sleep problems (r = .601, p = .002). Controlling for age and gender, separate multiple regression analyses found difficulties in impulse control (beta= 1.51, p = .014), emotion regulation strategies (beta = 0.557, p = .011), and emotional clarity (beta = .678, p = .003) to be significant predictors of perceived sleep difficulties. Subjective sleep reports were not associated with actigraphy variables except for sleep duration (r = -.425, p = .006). No significant relationships between emotion regulation and objective sleep variables were observed. Conclusion(s): Teens with poorer emotion regulation perceive their sleep to be more disrupted, even when objective measures do not corroborate sleep reports. In particular, adolescents who are less able to make sense of their emotions and who have fewer strategies for controlling them may be poor judges of their sleep.