Objectives: Adult patients with cancer and their caregivers are at risk for poor sleep health, which has been related to several morbidities and greater mortality. Yet, less known is the degree to which individuals’ stress regulation in response to acute stressors influences their own and their partner’s sleep health.
Sample and Setting: Colorectal cancer patients (n = 148, 54.6 years old, 35.2% female, 62.9% Hispanic, 6-month post-diagnosis) and their spouses who are also bedpartners underwent an experimental session together (T1) at their home. Participants completed daily sleep log for 14 consecutive days at T1 and 12 months later (T2).
Procedures: During the experimental session, perceived stress was self-reported before (baseline) and after stress onset (stress reactivity phase), and again 12 minutes after stress offset (stress recovery phase). Sleep efficiency was calculated from the daily sleep logs and averaged across 14 days at T1 and T2.
Results: Participants reported significant increases in perceived stress upon stress onset and decreases upon stress offset (p < .001). Actor partner interdependence modeling controlling for sleep efficiency at T1 revealed that patients had higher sleep efficiency at T2 when they displayed larger stress reactivity (p < .001; 95% CI = 0.465, 0.721). Caregivers’ higher sleep efficiency at T2 was associated with their patients’ greater stress recovery and caregivers’ own poorer sleep efficiency at T1 (p < .02; 95% CI = 0.419, 0.705; 95% CI = -1.112, -1.097, respectively).
Conclusion and Clinical Implications: The differential role of patients’ stress regulation in their own and their partner’s sleep health should be acknowledged in clinical practice. Investigating the impact of nuanced stress and affective regulatory patterns on diverse markers of sleep health are warranted to better understand the role of stress in sleep health among adults with cancer and their sleep-partner caregivers.