Daily associations between sleep quality and anxiety in university students : the moderating effect of alexithymia

Abstract

Objectives: Individuals with higher anxiety were shown to experience poorer sleep quality in between-individuals studies, however, little research explored into the within-individual day-to-day variations between anxiety and sleep quality. Moreover, alexithymia was suggested to moderate the relationship between anxiety and sleep quality. In a nonclinical group of university students, the present research hypothesized anxiety throughout the day to predict same-night sleep quality (snSQ), and prior-night sleep quality (pnSQ) to predict next-day anxiety. It was also hypothesized that alexithymia moderates these relationships. Method: 60 university students took part in a 4-week study, completing a battery of questionnaires, and filled in two sleep diaries every day for 4 weeks. TAS-20 was included in the questionnaires to measure alexithymia. The sleep diaries measured individuals state anxiety and sleep quality. Results: Anxiety throughout the day significantly predicted snSQ, and pnSQ significantly predicted next-day anxiety. There were no moderating effect of alexithymia found in the relationships. However, a significant moderating effect was found in pnSQ when predicting PM anxiety. Conclusion: Findings supported our main hypotheses, implying significant associations between daily anxiety and sleep quality within individuals. It was also suggested that alexithymia displayed a moderating impact to a certain degree between anxiety and sleep quality.