The Role of Pre-Sleep Arousal in the Relationship Between Cognitive Emotional Regulation and Sleep Quality in Students

Abstract

Previous research indicates that a higher level of arousal, cognitive and/or somatic, which occurs before sleep, is a strong mediator through which the maladaptive relationship between stress and sleep can be maintained (Winzeler et al., 2014). Based on the above, the aim of the research was to examine the mediating role of pre-sleep arousal in the relationship between the use of different cognitive emotion regulation strategies and sleep quality. The research was conducted online on a sample of 276 students who filled out the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2001, Croatian adaptation Soldo & Vulić-Prtorić, 2018), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse et al., 1989, Croatian version Brajević-Gizdić et al., 2010), and Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (Nicassio et al., 1985) which assesses cognitive and somatic arousal. The results obtained show that the use of strategies of self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective contributes to sleep quality only indirectly through both components of pre-sleep arousal, i.e., cognitive and somatic. Using the strategy of blaming others only indirectly contributes to sleep quality through cognitive arousal. The results obtained were interpreted in terms of activation and prolonged activation of the stress response and recovery from stress. The paper discusses the guidelines for further research and the practical implications of the results.