Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA.
School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Sleep Health. 2021 Apr;7(2):266-272. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2020.11.003. Epub 2021 Jan 11.
We and others have found that couples' sleep is a shared and dyadic process. Couples' sleep-wake concordance (whether couples are awake or asleep at the same time) is associated with couples' relationship factors; however, we know little of the temporal associations between concordance and daily relationship characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine daily positive and negative interpersonal interactions to determine how they predict, and are predicted by, nightly sleep-wake concordance.
Participants were 48 heterosexual couples between 18 and 45 years of age who shared a bed with their spouse. Couples completed questionnaires and daily assessments of positive and negative interactions. Each member of the dyad wore wrist actigraphs for 10 days. Sleep-wake concordance was calculated as the percentage of time couples were awake or asleep throughout the night at one-minute intervals. Multilevel modeling with lagged effects determined bidirectional and lagged associations between concordance and couples' daily interactions.
Couples had more negative interactions than their usual following nights with higher concordance than their usual (but not vice versa) and this was more pronounced for well-adjusted couples. In contrast, across all couples, more positive interactions and perceived warmth and support from partners were associated with higher concordance.
Our findings demonstrate that the valence of sleep-wake concordance depends on relationship quality characteristics (eg, marital adjustment). Future research on relationships, sleep, and health should consider couples' shared sleep behaviors as one mechanism by which relationships are associated with long-term health outcomes.
我们和其他人发现，夫妻的睡眠是一个共享的、对偶的过程。夫妻的睡眠-觉醒同步（夫妻是否同时处于清醒或睡眠状态）与夫妻的关系因素有关；然而，我们对同步性和日常关系特征之间的时间关联知之甚少。本研究的目的是检查日常积极和消极的人际互动，以确定它们如何预测以及被夜间睡眠-觉醒同步性所预测。
参与者是 48 对 18 至 45 岁之间的异性恋夫妇，他们与配偶同床共枕。夫妇们完成了问卷和日常积极和消极互动的评估。对偶中的每一位成员都佩戴腕动计 10 天。睡眠-觉醒同步性是指在一分钟的间隔内，夫妻在夜间醒来或入睡的时间百分比。具有滞后效应的多层次模型确定了同步性和夫妻日常互动之间的双向和滞后关联。
与通常情况相比，夫妻在同步性高于通常情况的夜晚有更多的消极互动（但不是相反），而对于适应良好的夫妻来说，这种情况更为明显。相比之下，在所有夫妇中，更多的积极互动以及感受到伴侣的温暖和支持与更高的同步性相关。
我们的研究结果表明，睡眠-觉醒同步的效价取决于关系质量特征（例如，婚姻调整）。关于关系、睡眠和健康的未来研究应该将夫妻的共享睡眠行为视为关系与长期健康结果相关的一种机制。
