Stress, Cognitive Emotion Regulation, and Sleep in University Students

The appropriate regulation of thoughts and emotions decreases the likelihood of pathogenic activation of stress response (Gross, 2007). Stress is closely related to impaired sleep incross-sectional studies (Akerstedt, 2006) and can elicit profound and lasting effects on sleep (Hall et al., 2004). To analyze the associations between perceived stress, cognitive coping strategies and sleep difficulties. 549 students (80.1% females) from two Portuguese Universities filled in the Portuguese version of Perceived Stress Scale 10 (PSS, Cohen et al., 1983; Amaral et al., 2014), Cognitive Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ, Garnefski et al., 2001; Castro et al., 2013) and three questions were used to access sleep difficulties (initiating sleep, sleep maintenance, and early morning awakening). In the present sample the prevalence for difficulty initiating sleep was 29,8%, of maintaining sleep was 27,9% and of early morning awakening was 30,9%. Considering stress, cognitive coping strategies and sleep, consistent and strongest positive correlations were observed between Perceived Stress and Rumination (from r=.263 to r=.486; p<.01), Catastrophizing (from r=.263 to r=.391; p<.01) and negatively correlated with Positive reappraisal and planning (from r=-.109; p<.05 to r=-.346; p<.01). The correlations between perceived stress and difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep were from r=.249 to r=.356(p<.01). Strongest correlations were observed between Rumination, Self-blame and Catastrophizing and difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep (fromr=.152 to r=.258; p<.01). Rumination, Self-blame and Catastrophizing were the cognitive coping strategies consistently associated with perceived stress and difficulties in initiating and maintaining sleep.