Sleep disturbance is associated with less emotional reactivity in individuals with heightened repetitive negative thinking

Recently, there has been increasing recognition that individuals with heightened repetitive negative thinking and anxiety often experience disruptions in their sleep and circadian rhythms. However, the mechanisms of this relation require further study. The primary aim of this study is to identify whether emotional reactivity is related to sleep in individuals with repetitive negative thinking. Fifty-two individuals selected for high levels of transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking and varying amounts of sleep disruption were included in the study sample. Participants passively viewed emotionally-valenced (positive and negative) and neutral images. Some of these images had been previously-seen by participants and others were novel. Participants’ pupil diameter was measured as they viewed the images and they also rated their subjective reaction to these images. Poorer sleep quality was significantly associated with less pupil dilation in response to all novel stimuli (i.e., collapsing across emotion). Shorter habitual sleep duration and longer sleep onset latency were associated with lower subjective unpleasantness when viewing all study stimuli (i.e., collapsing across novelty and emotion). These findings were consistent with the possibility that sleep disturbance may be related to repetitive negative thinking through differences in emotional reactivity. Sleep disturbance has been associated with blunted responses to emotional stimuli in other samples. Future studies examining mechanisms and moderators of increased and blunted emotional response related to sleep disturbance are needed.