Psychology Commons^™

Does Emotional Processing Mediate The Link Between Disordered Sleep And Depression?, Kimberly O'Leary

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Disordered sleep is strongly linked to depression, but reasons for this are not well understood. One possibility is that this link is partially explained by deficits in the emotional processing system. This model is substantiated based on the strong link between sleep and emotions, as well as ties between affect and depression. Therefore, this study tested whether various emotional and non-emotional deficits mediated the link between poor sleep quality and depression. Two hundred undergraduate students were recruited via an online university system. Participants completed self-report scales of depression, sleep quality, emotion recognition, and affective response to pre-tested pleasant or unpleasant …