Sleep Quality and Emotion Regulation Success and Strategy Use Across the Adult Lifespan

Previous research has shown that sleep and age impact emotion regulation success. Sleep decrements are known to occur with increasing age, yet little research has examined how alterations to sleep quality with increasing age impact emotion regulation efficacy. Using data from 109 adults aged 18-83 (<em>M_age</em>= 48.7, 56% female), the present study investigated the effects of sleep quality, age, and their interaction on self-reported emotion regulation success and functional connectivity between the amygdala and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) during an emotion regulation task. Moreover, this study explored moderation by emotion regulation strategy, as strategy choice has been found to differ with age. Greater age was associated with worse self-reported emotion regulation success, and better short-term sleep quality predicted greater functional connectivity between the dmPFC and amygdala in adults 47 and older. While there was no moderation by emotion regulation strategy, we found that reappraisal was less successful compared to other strategies. These findings emphasize the importance of good quality sleep for emotion regulation, particularly for older adults, and offer insight into its neural mechanisms across the adult lifespan.