Just 46 Extra Minutes of Sleep Boosts Gratitude

Being grateful is an admirable quality that research shows can be developed just by getting a little more sleep. Scientists at Baylor University found that an average of 46 minutes of additional sleep per night is linked to improvements in well-being such as an increase in feelings of gratitude, personal flourishing and resilience.

Researchers from Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory explored the impact of sleep on mental well-being and how increased sleep may influence positive psychology outcomes. Previous research on the subject was focused on the negative effects of sleep deprivation. This study looked at how sleep can actively enhance well-being instead of just avoiding adverse outcomes.

Gratitude, resilience and flourishing are personality traits that are typically thought to be supported by good sleep. Researcher Alexander Do looked at it from a different perspective and wanted to see if sleep by itself could enhance those positive states.

"Alex did an excellent job coming up with a novel thesis idea, which built a bridge between the work that he had been doing in my sleep lab for two years prior and a new area that would expand the sleep field in a meaningful way," professor Michael Scullin said. "His research question on the relationship between sleep, gratitude, and flourishing initiated a research collaboration."

"This study is exciting because it expands what we know about the health effects of sleep restriction and extension to include variables related to forming flourishing moral communities," professor Sarah Schnitker said.

A group of 90 study participants was randomly divided between a group assigned to early bedtimes, late bedtimes or normal bedtimes across a single workweek. Their sleep was tracked and they were asked to record their behavioral expressions of gratitude in a journal.

"We saw that people who increased their sleep by 46 minutes a night ended up feeling more resilience, gratitude, life satisfaction, and purpose in life," Scullin said."When people were cut back on sleep by a mild average of 37 minutes a night, they experienced drops in mood, resilience, flourishing and gratitude."

While sleep can affect mood, the improvements seen could not be fully explained by mood changes, which suggests sleep has a greater effect on overall well-being beyond moods and outlooks.

"It turns out that getting more sleep has a broader influence than just feeling more alert during the day," Scullin said. "Better sleep helps you to have a clear vision for your life and to be more resilient to the challenges that could happen tomorrow."

Click here to read more in The Journal of Positive Psychology.