Chelsea Romney, Brigham Young University
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Getting adequate sleep is essential for optimal daytime functioning and has implications for both physical and mental health. There are several reasons to believe that social support may influence sleep outcomes. Although certain relationships (e.g., married versus unmarried) have been tied to sleep disturbances, little is known about the association between the quality of one’s overall social network and sleep. Thus, in the present study, we examined how the amount of supportive relationships in an individual’s social network is associated with sleep outcomes.
The sample consisted of 108 married couples and was part of a larger marital intervention study. Participants completed a packet of questionnaires that included demographic variables (e.g. age, ethnicity, occupation, education), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS, to assess marital adjustment), the Social Relationship Index (SRI, to assess number and relationship quality of social network members), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, to assess general feelings of stress), and select items from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI, to assess sleep outcomes).
While controlling for marital adjustment, regression analyses revealed that individuals who reported greater numbers of supportive relationships in their social network had better subjective sleep quality, β = .04, t(198) = 2.27, p = .02, took less time to fall asleep, β = -.85, t(195) = -2.32, p = .02, and lost less sleep during the night, β = -1.01, t(196) = -2.20, p = .03. Sobel tests also revealed that perceived stress significantly mediated each of these effects, p < .001.These findings supplement the current literature on the benefits of positive social relationships. There is evidence to suggest that quality of support networks can influence sleep outcomes, which may affect overall health. Evidence for the stress-buffering model is also demonstrated as perceived stress mediated the association between number of supportive relationships and sleep outcomes.