Abstract
Objective: Poor sleep is a widespread problem and given the well-documented deleterious health effects, has become a serious public health concern. As such, increasing efforts are directed towards understanding the underlying mechanisms. One potential mechanism may be cortisol dysfunctions, however, studies investigating the effects of poor sleep on a body’s capacity to deal with challenges are lacking. The current study thus aimed at testing the effects of sleep quality and sleep quantity on cortisol responses to acute psychosocial stress.\r Methods: N=73 adults (44 females, 19.7±2.4 yrs.) self-reported sleep behavior, and underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Saliva samples for cortisol assessment were taken immediately before the TSST as well as repeatedly afterwards.\r Results: Average sleep duration did not appear to impact cortisol stress responses (p=.66). Contrarily, men who reported poor sleep quality showed exaggerated cortisol responses, while women exhibited blunted responses (F=3.17,p=.04). Lastly, participants who reported having trouble staying awake or keeping up enthusiasm also showed blunted cortisol responses compared to participants who did not experience such daytime dysfunctions (F=2.72, p=.06; F=1.99, p=.09, respectively).\r Conclusions: Overall, the current study suggests stress reactivity dysfunctions as one mechanism linking poor sleep with detrimental physical health outcomes in a gender-dependent manner. Furthermore, it can be speculated that the differential sleep effects may indicate that while the body is unable to maintain normal HPA functioning in an acute psychosocial stress situation after falling prey to low sleep quality, it may retain capacities to deal with challenges during times of sleep deprivation.