The Roles of Emotion Regulation and Alexithymia in the Relationship Between Sleep and Social Functioning.

This article examines how emotional processes, specifically emotion regulation strategies and alexithymia, moderate the relationship between sleep quality and social functioning. Using data from the Pittsburgh Cold Study 3 (N = 213), the study found that poorer sleep quality was associated with worse social functioning outcomes such as greater loneliness, smaller social networks, and reduced social participation. Notably, the use of the adaptive emotion regulation strategy reappraisal significantly moderated the relationship between sleep quality and both social participation and giving support to others, with worse sleep linked to lower social engagement only among those high in reappraisal use. In contrast, suppression and alexithymia did not moderate these relationships. The findings suggest that cognitive demands of reappraisal may make individuals more vulnerable to the social consequences of poor sleep, highlighting the potential benefit of integrated interventions targeting both sleep and emotion regulation to improve social functioning.