This study investigated the association between trait-level subjective happiness and objective sleep in college students. Seventy-eight participants completed the Subjective Happiness Scale and wore actigraph devices for seven days to monitor naturalistic sleep patterns. Bivariate correlations indicated that higher subjective happiness was linked to shorter average time in bed (r = -.346, p = .002), shorter total sleep time (r = -.246, p = .030), and fewer awakenings (r = -.256, p = .024). No significant associations emerged for sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, or wake after sleep onset. Findings suggest that greater happiness in young adults may promote consolidated but briefer sleep, reflecting adaptive efficiency rather than deficiency.
McElroy et al. (Wed,) studied this question.