The impact of rumination on sleep quality following a stressful life event

Previous research suggests an association between rumination and poor sleep quality. This study sought to clarify the direction of this association by inducing rumination about a negative event in the pre-sleep period and assessing self-reported sleep quality. On the evening following a stressful event (a mid-session exam), high (N = 59) and low (N = 55) trait ruminator undergraduate students were assigned to a pre-sleep rumination or distraction condition. Participants completed ratings of pre-sleep intrusive thoughts about the mid-session exam and sleep quality. As expected, high-trait ruminators experienced more pre-sleep intrusive thoughts and poorer sleep quality. Results confirmed that the instruction to ruminate had a particularly detrimental effect on sleep quality for high-trait ruminators compared to low-trait ruminators. Our findings confirm that rumination in the pre-sleep period following a stressful event has a negative impact on sleep quality for individuals with a trait tendency to ruminate. Suggestions are made for future research to investigate the interplay of rumination and stressful life events.