Abstract Introduction An established bidirectional link exists between insomnia and depressive symptoms. In addition, sleep reactivity, a vulnerability for stress-related sleep disturbance, has been shown to predict depressive symptoms independently of insomnia. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between sleep reactivity and depressive symptoms remain unexplored. This study aimed to determine the roles of cognitive-affective processes, such as rumination, suppression, and cognitive reappraisal, in influencing the relationship between sleep reactivity and depressive symptoms. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected via an online Qualtrics survey from 641 undergraduate students at the University of Arkansas (Mage=19.1 years, 68% female, 80% White). Eighty-three participants were excluded due to substantial missing data (final N = 558), and multiple imputation was used to correct for missing data. Participants completed measures of depression and anhedonia symptoms (MASQ-90), perceived stress (PSS-10), insomnia symptoms (ISI), sleep reactivity (FIRST), cognitive reappraisal and suppression (ERQ), and rumination (RRS-22). Two 3-step hierarchical multiple regressions were performed to determine whether cognitive-affective processes (rumination, suppression, cognitive reappraisal) –including their interactions with sleep reactivity– accounted for additional variance in depressive and anhedonic symptoms beyond insomnia symptoms and perceived stress. Results Our findings suggest that all variables had a significant main effect on depressive symptoms, however, only rumination significantly moderated the link between sleep reactivity and depression symptoms (B = .008, t(548) = 2.75, p .01). That is, the association between sleep reactivity and depressive symptoms was greater among those with greater ruminative tendencies. The two-way interactions for suppression and cognitive reappraisal were not significant, indicating that these processes did not moderate the sleep reactivity-depression link. No cognitive-affective process significantly predicted the relationship between sleep reactivity and anhedonic symptoms. Conclusion As expected, our findings supported that rumination, suppression, and cognitive reappraisal individually predict depressive symptoms. Additionally, the association between sleep reactivity and depressive symptoms was greater for individuals with greater ruminative tendencies. No cognitive-affective process was found to significantly impact the relationship between sleep reactivity and anhedonic symptoms. Support (if any)
Janes et al. (2026) studied this question.