Better sleep duration, quality improve trait emotional intelligence

Better sleep duration and sleep quality seem to be independently associated with improvements in trait emotional intelligence (EI), a recent study has found. In contrast, sleep seems to have very limited impacts on a person’s understanding and knowledge about how to best manage emotions.

“In short, when it comes to emotional functioning, sleep is related to how you feel more than what you know,” the researchers said.

The study included 447 healthy adults (mean age 23.7±5.6 years, 322 women) who were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires about health and sleep habits. Trait EI was measured using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, while ability EI was assessed through Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test.

Overall, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) found that overall sleep quality in the study cohort was slightly below average, with 60 percent of participants scoring >5 points. Self-reported sleep duration showed that the night before the assessment, participants slept for an average of 6.49±1.25 hours, slightly below the recommended duration of 7–9 hours.

Subsequent regression analyses found that sleep duration and quality were significantly and positively correlated with trait EI. For instance, global trait EI was associated with lower PSQI scores (β, –0.275; p<0.0001) and longer night-before sleep duration (β, 0.130; p=0.006). The same was true for the Emotionality, Sociability, and Wellbeing domains of the trait EI questionnaire.

On the other hand, sleep did not appear to be related to measures of ability EI, with neither PSQI scores nor sleep duration the night before showing no significant correlations with scores on the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test.