Nightly sleep-wake concordance and daily marital interactions.

OBJECTIVE: We and others have found that couples' sleep is a shared and dyadic process. Couples' sleep-wake concordance (whether couples are awake or asleep at the same time) is associated with couples' relationship factors; however, we know little of the temporal associations between concordance and daily relationship characteristics. The purpose of this study was to examine daily positive and negative interpersonal interactions to determine how they predict, and are predicted by, nightly sleep-wake concordance. METHOD: Participants were 48 heterosexual couples between 18 and 45 years of age who shared a bed with their spouse. Couples completed questionnaires and daily assessments of positive and negative interactions. Each member of the dyad wore wrist actigraphs for 10 days. Sleep-wake concordance was calculated as the percentage of time couples were awake or asleep throughout the night at one-minute intervals. Multilevel modeling with lagged effects determined bidirectional and lagged associations between concordance and couples' daily interactions. RESULTS: Couples had more negative interactions than their usual following nights with higher concordance than their usual (but not vice versa) and this was more pronounced for well-adjusted couples. In contrast, across all couples, more positive interactions and perceived warmth and support from partners were associated with higher concordance. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate that the valence of sleep-wake concordance depends on relationship quality characteristics (eg, marital adjustment). Future research on relationships, sleep, and health should consider couples' shared sleep behaviors as one mechanism by which relationships are associated with long-term health outcomes.

Family Dynamics in Sleep Health and Hypertension.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Present a conceptual model and review the recent literature on family dynamics, sleep, and hypertension. RECENT FINDINGS: Family dynamics predict hypertension and hypertension risk, in part, due to shared health behaviors. Sleep health behaviors (sleep duration, quality, and efficiency) predict hypertension risk in children and youth and are emerging as a family-level health behavior. Importantly, both family dynamics and sleep are modifiable. Family members influence one another's sleep through their physical presence and through psychological and emotional mechanisms. Family members' sleep patterns may also be coregulated. Negative family dynamics are associated with poor sleep health and predict greater cardiovascular risk. Sleep health behaviors in the family context may also interact with family dynamics to dampen or exacerbate hypertension risk factors in children and youth. This review proposes that promoting sleep health in a family context could be one way to reduce long-term hypertension risk.