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Kathi L. Heffner, Nighttime Sleep and Daytime Stress—Tangled Bedfellows: a Comment on Williams et al., Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 46, Issue 1, August 2013, Pages 7–8, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-013-9502-x
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The article by Williams and colleagues [1] aligns with growing evidence that although psychological stress and worry can result in less sleep, poor sleep quality may play a significant role in disturbing further stress adaptation. By examining associations between sleep and stress-related cognitive, affective, and physiological disturbances, the authors provide a snapshot of what likely represents an unhealthful, bidirectional cycle of poor sleep and maladaptive stress responses.
Elaborating on this cyclical pathway has the potential to inform models of chronic stress and health that could ultimately benefit prevention and intervention efforts. Inadequate sleep and poor adaptation to stressors each affect mental and emotional well-being. Williams and colleagues’ findings hint at a key role for sleep in stress and health links, and future work should clarify this role. Poor sleep may be a causal factor for poor adaptation to stress, a moderator of the effects of stressors on well-being, and/or a phenotypic marker of risk for individuals most vulnerable to the health effects of stress.
