Stressor reflections, sleep, and psychological well-being: a pre-registered experimental test of self-distanced versus self-immersed reflections

Hugh Riddell, Monique Crane, Jonas W. B. Lang, Michael T. Chapman, Elizabeth M. Murdoch, Daniel F. Gucciardi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
50 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Evidence supports the effectiveness of cuing people to analyse negative autobiographical experiences from self-distanced rather than self-immersed perspectives. However, the evidence on which this expectation resides is limited largely to static snapshots of mean levels of cognitive and emotional factors. Via a pre-registered, randomised controlled trial (N = 257), we examined the differential effectiveness of self-distanced relative to self-immersed reflections on mean levels and within-person variability of sleep duration and quality as well as psychological well-being over a 5-day working week. Except for sleep quality, we found that reflecting from a psychologically distanced perspective, overall, was no more effective for mean levels and within-person variability of sleep duration, well-being, and stress-related factors than when the current self is fully immersed in the experiential reality of the event. We consider several substantive and methodological considerations (e.g., dosage, salience of stressor event) that require interrogation in future research via experimental and longitudinal observational methods.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)488-498
Number of pages11
JournalStress and Health
Volume39
Issue number3
Early online date27 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2022. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • construal level theory
  • emotion regulation
  • heterogenous variance model
  • intra-individual variability
  • perspective taking
  • vantage point

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