DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that bedtime procrastination among college students is socially influenced by the need to belong.

Results show that sleep duration was more than an hour shorter on school nights when college students delayed their bedtime for in-person social leisure activities. On these nights, their bedtime was strongly correlated with the timing of their last objectively measured social interaction with friends. Students within the bedtime procrastination social network scored higher on the need to belong compared with students outside the network. The need to belong also predicted tie formation within the bedtime procrastination social network.

“As far as we know, this is the first study to identify ‘need to belong’ as a potential driver of social bedtime procrastination and short sleep,” said principal investigator Joshua Gooley, who has a doctorate in neurobiology and is an associate professor with the Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleep is essential to health. The AASM recommends that adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. Bedtime procrastination — choosing to go to bed later despite being aware of its potential negative consequences — reduces the opportunity to get sufficient sleep.

The study involved a sample of 104 university students in a residential college, including 59 women. They wore an actigraph and a proximity beacon watch for two weeks during the school semester to estimate their nocturnal sleep and track when they were near one another. Participants also completed daily diaries. The Need to Belong Scale assessed individual differences in the desire for acceptance and belonging.

Gooley noted that the strength of their findings was surprising.

“We often think of sleep loss as being caused by screen time or work, but social needs, especially in group-living environments, can be just as powerful at influencing sleep,” he said.

The study was supported by funding from the Singapore Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation in Singapore. The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Wednesday, June 11, during SLEEP 2025 in Seattle. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

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Abstract Title: Social Bedtime Procrastination Associates with Greater Need to Belong

Abstract ID: 0261
Poster Presentation Date: Wednesday, June 11, 10-10:45 a.m. PDT, Board #025
Presenter: Venetia Kok Jing Tong, doctoral candidate with the Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School

For a copy of the abstract or to arrange an interview with the study author or a sleep expert, please send an email to aasm@lcwa.com.

About the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC

The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The APSS organizes the SLEEP annual meeting each June.

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the AASM is a medical association that advances sleep care and enhances sleep health to improve lives. The AASM membership includes more than 9,500 physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals who help people who have sleep disorders. The AASM also accredits 2,300 sleep centers that are providing the highest quality of sleep care across the country (aasm.org).

About the Sleep Research Society 

The SRS is a professional membership society that advances sleep and circadian science. The SRS serves its members and the field of sleep and circadian research through training and education, and by providing forums for the collaboration and exchange of ideas. The SRS facilitates its goals through scientific meetings and trainee specific programming, and by advocating for federal sleep and circadian research funding. The SRS also publishes the peer-reviewed, scientific journals Sleep and Sleep Advances (sleepresearchsociety.org).

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that certain objectively measured daytime napping behaviors are associated with an increased risk of mortality for middle-to-older aged adults.

Results show that the median nap duration was 0.40 hours per day. Thirty-four percent of naps were taken between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., 10% were taken between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., 14% were taken between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., 19% were taken between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and 22% were taken between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. An analysis found that longer naps, greater variability in daytime nap duration, and higher percentages of naps around noon and in the early afternoon are associated with greater mortality risks.

“In evaluating the results of the sleep study, we were surprised by how common napping was among middle-to-older aged adults, how much their daytime sleep patterns varied across days, and when during the day they are sleeping,” said lead author Chenlu Gao, a postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “People who slept longer during the day, had irregular daytime sleep patterns, or slept more around midday and early afternoon were at greater risk, even after accounting for health and lifestyle factors.”

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine encourages healthy adults to limit naps to no longer than 20-30 minutes in the early afternoon. While a brief “power” nap can improve daytime alertness and performance, naps of 30 minutes or longer may cause a person to feel groggy after waking up. This grogginess, or “sleep inertia,” can delay the short-term performance benefits of a nap.

“Interestingly, the data that shows risks associated with napping around midday and early afternoon contradicts what we currently know about napping, so further research on that link could be warranted,” Gao added.

The study sample comprised 86,565 non-shiftworking participants in the UK Biobank with an average baseline age of 63 years; 57% were women. They were monitored by actigraphy for seven days, and daytime napping was defined as sleep between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Mortality data were obtained from national registries. There were 5,189 (6.0%) participants who died during a follow-up period of up to 11 years. Results were adjusted for potential confounders including demographics, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, and nighttime sleep duration.

Gao noted that the results are important because they highlight the potential significance of considering daytime sleep behaviors in the risk stratification of mortality in adults. However, the study has some limitations. Because it relied on actigraphy, which detects movement but not brain activity, quiet wakefulness may have been misclassified as sleep. Additionally, defining daytime napping as sleep between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. could have inadvertently included portions of participants’ primary sleep episodes, potentially affecting the accuracy of nap classification.

“Incorporating actigraphy-based daytime sleep assessments into clinical and public health practices may provide novel opportunities for early risk identification and personalized interventions to promote longevity,” Gao said.

This study was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association and AASM Foundation. The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Wednesday, June 11, during SLEEP 2025 in Seattle. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

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Abstract Title: Objectively-Assessed Napping Behaviors Predict Mortality in Middle-to-Older Aged Adults

Abstract ID: 0350
Poster Presentation Date: Wednesday, June 11, 10-10:45 a.m. PDT, Board #067
Presenter: Chenlu Gao, postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital

For a copy of the abstract or to arrange an interview with the study author or a sleep expert, please send an email to aasm@lcwa.com.

About the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC

The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The APSS organizes the SLEEP annual meeting each June.

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the AASM is a medical association that advances sleep care and enhances sleep health to improve lives. The AASM membership includes more than 9,500 physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals who help people who have sleep disorders. The AASM also accredits 2,300 sleep centers that are providing the highest quality of sleep care across the country (aasm.org).

About the Sleep Research Society 

The SRS is a professional membership society that advances sleep and circadian science. The SRS serves its members and the field of sleep and circadian research through training and education, and by providing forums for the collaboration and exchange of ideas. The SRS facilitates its goals through scientific meetings and trainee specific programming, and by advocating for federal sleep and circadian research funding. The SRS also publishes the peer-reviewed, scientific journals Sleep and Sleep Advances (sleepresearchsociety.org).

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting quantifies the amount of sleep loss experienced by first-time mothers in the weeks after giving birth and is the first to identify the unique type of sleep disruption that persists throughout the first months of motherhood.

Results show that the average daily sleep duration of new mothers was 4.4 hours during the first week after giving birth compared with a pre-pregnancy sleep duration of 7.8 hours. Their longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep also fell from 5.6 hours at pre-pregnancy to 2.2 hours in the first week after delivery. Nearly one-third of participants (31.7%) went more than 24 hours without sleep in the first week with a newborn.

The daily sleep duration of new moms increased to 6.7 hours across postpartum weeks 2 through 7 and 7.3 hours across weeks 8 through 13. However, their longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep remained significantly lower than pre-pregnancy levels at 3.2 hours in weeks 2 through 7 and 4.1 hours in weeks 8 through 13. This novel finding reveals that sleep discontinuity remains a problem for new mothers even as their total nightly sleep duration gradually returns to pre-pregnancy levels.

“The significant loss of uninterrupted sleep in the postpartum period was the most dramatic finding,” said lead author Teresa Lillis, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is an adjunct professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “While mothers generally returned to their pre-pregnancy total nightly sleep duration after the first postpartum week, the structure of their sleep remained profoundly altered. These results fundamentally transform our understanding of postpartum sleep; it’s not the lack of sleep, but rather, the lack of uninterrupted sleep that is the largest challenge for new mothers.”

The study involved 41 first-time mothers between the ages of 26 and 43 years. They provided their wearable sleep data from their personal Fitbit devices for a full year before childbirth through the end of the first year after giving birth.

Lillis noted that these findings explain why new mothers continue to feel exhausted even when they get the recommended 7 or more hours of sleep per night. The study results also identify sleep discontinuity as a potential risk factor and intervention target for postpartum depression and other postpartum-related health issues.

“Our results validate the lived experience of new mothers’ exhaustion and provide a new target for sleep-related interventions,” she said. “Rather than simply encouraging mothers to ‘nap when the baby naps’, our findings show that mothers would most benefit from strategies that protect opportunities for uninterrupted sleep.”

This study was supported by trackthatsleep LLC, for which Lillis serves as CEO. The study was conducted at Washington State University’s Sleep and Performance Research Center with co-investigators Devon Hansen and Hans Van Dongen.

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Monday, June 9, during SLEEP 2025 in Seattle. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

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Abstract Title: Profound Postpartum Sleep Discontinuity in First-Time Mothers

Abstract ID: 0915
Poster Presentation Date: Monday, June 9, 11-11:45 a.m. PDT, Board #294
Presenter: Teresa Lillis, PhD, adjunct professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Rush University Medical Center

For a copy of the abstract or to arrange an interview with the study author or a sleep expert, please send an email to aasm@lcwa.com.

About the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC

The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The APSS organizes the SLEEP annual meeting each June.

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the AASM is a medical association that advances sleep care and enhances sleep health to improve lives. The AASM membership includes more than 9,500 physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals who help people who have sleep disorders. The AASM also accredits 2,300 sleep centers that are providing the highest quality of sleep care across the country (aasm.org).

About the Sleep Research Society 

The SRS is a professional membership society that advances sleep and circadian science. The SRS serves its members and the field of sleep and circadian research through training and education, and by providing forums for the collaboration and exchange of ideas. The SRS facilitates its goals through scientific meetings and trainee specific programming, and by advocating for federal sleep and circadian research funding. The SRS also publishes the peer-reviewed, scientific journals SLEEP and SLEEP Advances (sleepresearchsociety.org).

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that oral microbiome diversity is positively associated with long sleep duration among teenagers and young adults.

Results show that compared to those with a healthy sleep duration, teenagers and young adults with a long sleep duration (3% of participants) had significantly higher oral microbiome diversity. The study is among the first to demonstrate this connection in adolescents, opening a new avenue of research into how the oral microbiome may be related to sleep health during this crucial developmental period.

“For more than two decades, researchers have hypothesized that the microbiome is largely overlooked as a determinant of health and disease, and growing evidence has shown that disturbances in sleep health can alter the microbiome, particularly within the gut,” said lead author Marie-Rachelle Narcisse, who is an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and is a research scientist at the E.P. Bradley Hospital COBRE Center for Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Providence, Rhode Island. “I’m thrilled that our study highlights the potential relationship between sleep health and the oral microbiome and look forward to further exploring that connection.”

The study examined a representative sample of 1,332 American adolescents and young adults ages 16-26, using cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey . The mean age was 20.9 years, and 50.4% were female. The sleep variables were self-reported sleep hours on weekdays or school/work days categorized as very short, short, healthy, and long sleep according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommendations. Five in 10 teenagers (50.6%) reported the recommended hours of sleep (8-10 hours), while six in 10 young adults (61.2%) reported a healthy sleep duration (7-9 hours).

The AASM recommends that teens should sleep 8 to 10 hours on a regular basis, and adults should sleep seven or more hours per night on a regular basis, to promote optimal health. Sufficient, high-quality sleep is associated with better health outcomes, including improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. Notably, poor sleep can weaken immune function and increase inflammation, which may affect oral health.

Narcisse noted that the human mouth is one of the most densely colonized microbial habitats in the body, and the oral cavity is an entry point for pathogens that can lead to chronic conditions such as gum inflammation and dental caries. Further research is needed to understand the relationship between sleep health and the oral microbiome.

“Adolescence is a pivotal period marked by biological changes in sleep-wake cycles, yet studies exploring the link between sleep health and the oral microbiome during this stage of life are scarce,” Narcisse said. “Our findings suggest that targeting the oral microbiome to improve adolescent sleep health, or conversely, improving sleep to influence the oral microbiome, holds the promise to offer more accessible, cost-effective intervention strategies than approaches focused solely on the gut.”

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Tuesday, June 10, during SLEEP 2025 in Seattle. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

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Abstract Title: Associations of Sleep and Oral Microbiome Among Adolescents and Young Adults in the United States

Abstract ID: 0360
Poster Presentation Date: Tuesday, June 10, 11-11:45 a.m. PDT, Board #138
Presenter: Marie-Rachelle Narcisse, principal investigator and lead author, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, research scientist at the E.P. Bradley Hospital COBRE Center for Sleep and Circadian Rhythms in Child and Adolescent Mental Health

For a copy of the abstract or to arrange an interview with the study author or a sleep expert, please send an email to aasm@lcwa.com.

About the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC

The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The APSS organizes the SLEEP annual meeting each June.

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the AASM is a medical association that advances sleep care and enhances sleep health to improve lives. The AASM membership includes more than 9,500 physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals who help people who have sleep disorders. The AASM also accredits 2,300 sleep centers that are providing the highest quality of sleep care across the country (aasm.org).

About the Sleep Research Society 

The SRS is a professional membership society that advances sleep and circadian science. The SRS serves its members and the field of sleep and circadian research through training and education, and by providing forums for the collaboration and exchange of ideas. The SRS facilitates its goals through scientific meetings and trainee specific programming, and by advocating for federal sleep and circadian research funding. The SRS also publishes the peer-reviewed, scientific journals SLEEP and SLEEP Advances (sleepresearchsociety.org).