Couples Sleep and Daily Emotions Study

In collaboration with Dr. Nate Herr and the Interpersonal Emotion Lab, we are currently using a daily diary approach to explore the proximal predictive factors of interpersonal functioning among couples in intimate relationships. Couples recruited from the community will be assessed at baseline and twice daily during the 3-week monitoring period. Participants also wear an unobtrusive wristband activity monitor allowing us to explore physiological predictors of daily interpersonal functioning. A 6-month follow-up will help us examine how daily process variables might impact longer-term outcomes.

Volunteer for this study

If you are interested in participating in our daily diary couples study, please contact the research team at CouplesStudy.AU@gmail.com or give the lab a call at (202) 885-3933.

Sleep and Emotional Processes in Adolescence

his study is designed to assess how sleep disrupts everyday emotion processes in adolescence. Although we know that stress interferes with emotion regulation, there is surprisingly little literature on how this happens. Teenagers completed two daily diary surveys each day for two weeks while wearing an unobtrusive activity device to monitor their sleep. One goal of the study is to test how emotion regulation differs following nights of poor sleep. This might include disruption in the amount of stress, reactions to stress, attention, impulse control, ruminative thoughts in response to stress, increased social problems, or less ability to capitalize on positive events. Further, the study aims to test whether these sleep-emotion processes are different for students experiencing depression symptoms.