The Contribution of Individual Differences in Hostility to the Associations between Daily Interpersonal Conflict, Affect, and Sleep

Abstract

Adults of both sexes completed phone interviews assessing interpersonal conflict, state negative and positive affect (NA and PA), and sleep from the previous night on 7 consecutive evenings. Greater interpersonal conflict was associated with increased NA and decreased PA that day and increased sleep disturbance that night (measured on the next day). Mediational analyses were consistent with NA on the conflict day (but not PA) being a partial mediator of the prospective relation between greater conflict and greater sleep disturbance. Greater NA was associated with retrospective reports of obtaining less sleep and experiencing greater sleep disturbance the previous night but conflict was not associated with NA or PA on the following day. The associations between conflict and greater NA and sleep disturbance were exacerbated among individuals higher in cynical hostility. This exacerbation was not due to individuals higher in hostility reporting a greater number conflicts or more severe conflicts.