Go the EF to sleep: the importance of sleep on executive function, intrusive thoughts, and pre sleep cognition

Abstract

Mind wandering is a ubiquitous cognitive experience, whether it involves daydreaming about an upcoming vacation, reflecting on a conflict during a commute, or zoning out during a meeting. At its most prototypical, mind wandering consists of, unintentional, task unrelated, stimulus independent, and unguided thought. Although poor sleep is consistently linked to attention difficulties, it is unclear whether this relationship reflects impaired executive functioning, pre-sleep cognition, or both. To test these competing explanations, participants completed three sustained attention tasks and self-report measures assessing executive function, sleep quality, and pre-sleep cognition. It was hypothesized that (1) poor sleep would predict daytime mind wandering through impaired executive functioning and (2) individual differences in pre-sleep cognition will be positively related to daytime mind wandering. Consistent with previous research, lower executive functioning was associated with greater subjective feelings of inattention. However, executive functioning was not significantly associated with sleep disturbances. Indicating that executive function alone does not explain why poor sleepers experience more daytime mind wandering. Instead, the strongest and most consistent findings showed that poorer sleep quality was associated with more negatively valenced mind wandering across multiple measures. Insomnia symptoms and sleep disturbances were linked to increased negative mind wandering, while reporting less positive mind wandering. These findings suggest that poor sleep may influence the emotional content of internally generated thoughts. Consequently, the effects of poor sleep may extend beyond impaired attention to altered emotional regulation. Interventions targeting pre-sleep cognition, such as cognitive offloading, may, therefore, improve both sleep quality and the emotional quality of mind wandering.