BOSTON – Preliminary results from the “SNAPSHOT study”, an NIH-funded collaborative research project between the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and MIT Media Lab Affective Computing Group, suggest that keeping a regular sleep pattern contributes to the happiness and well-being of college students.
Results show that higher sleep regularity was significantly related to higher morning and evening happiness, healthiness and calmness during the week. Transitioning from an irregular weekly sleep pattern to a regular pattern also was associated with improved well-being, both during the week of regular sleep and on the day following it.
“We found that week-long irregular sleep schedules are significantly associated with lower self-reported morning and evening happiness, healthiness, and calmness during the week even after controlling for weekly average sleep duration,” said lead author Akane Sano, PhD, research scientist in the Media Lab Affective Computing Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
The analysis involved 204 college students between the ages of 18 and 25 years who participated in a 30-day field study. Sleep timing and duration were monitored using actigraphy, along with daily morning and evening Internet-based diaries. Self-reports of well-being (happiness, healthiness, and calmness) were collected using daily diaries.
“Irregular sleep-wake schedules are common in our modern society,” said Sano. “Our results indicate the importance of sleep regularity, in addition to sleep duration, and that regular sleep is associated with improved well-being.”
According to the authors, this study underlines the necessity of considering sleep regularity as an important factor for understanding self-reported well-being.
The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Monday, June 5, in Boston at SLEEP 2017, the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), which is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.
The study was supported by the following grants and organizations: NIH R01HL114088, R01GM105018, P01AG009975, R00HL119618 (AJKP), F32DK107146, T32HL007901 (AWM), UL1TR001102, the Harvard Catalyst, Samsung Electronics, and MIT Media Lab consortium.
Abstract Title: Influence of Weekly Sleep Regularity on Self-reported Wellbeing
Abstract ID: 0182
Presentation Date: Monday, June 5
Poster Presentation: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., board 127
Presenter: Akane Sano, PhD
For a copy of the abstract or to arrange an interview with the study author or an AASM spokesperson, please contact AASM Communications Coordinator Corinne Lederhouse at 630-737-9700, ext. 9366, or clederhouse@aasm.org.
About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) improves sleep health and promotes high quality, patient-centered care through advocacy, education, strategic research, and practice standards. The AASM has a combined membership of 10,000 accredited member sleep centers and individual members, including physicians, scientists and other health care professionals. For more information about sleep and sleep disorders, including a directory of AASM-accredited member sleep centers, visit www.sleepeducation.org.
