睡眠效率相关的皮质醇觉醒反应的变异性及其与特质焦虑和心理弹性的关系

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.0084

摘要/Abstract

摘要： 皮质醇觉醒反应(CAR)与个体心理健康的关系仍存在争议。为此, 本研究引入多天内CAR变异性作为新指标, 以弥补传统CAR平均量指标因受状态类因素影响而导致研究结论不一致的问题, 并探究其与特质焦虑和心理弹性的关系。实验1通过自然睡眠情境降低睡眠效率的变异来降低CAR变异性, 发现自然睡眠日下的CAR变异性与特质焦虑分数之间呈显著的正相关, 说明稳定环境下较小的CAR变异性伴随着个体较低的特质焦虑水平。实验2则通过完全睡眠剥夺的操纵提高CAR变异性, 发现睡眠剥夺前后的CAR变异性与心理弹性呈显著的正相关。说明变动环境下较大的CAR变异性伴随着个体较高的心理弹性水平。与之相对, 两项实验中的CAR均值均未表现出与特质焦虑或心理弹性的显著相关。上述结果表明, 在CAR均值外, 还可以考虑CAR变异性作为衡量心理健康更为有效的生理指标。在多天内考虑CAR变异性对于理解个体如何适应日常生活中的压力和挑战具有重要意义, 并且可以为促进心理健康和设计有效的干预策略提供新的视角和可能的思路。

关键词: 皮质醇觉醒反应, 变异性, 睡眠效率, 特质焦虑, 心理弹性

Abstract: Cortisol awakening response (CAR) is closely associated with individual mental health. Traditional studies have used the mean value of CAR over several days to explore this relationship. However, their conclusions have been highly inconsistent due to the influence of state-dependent factors, such as sleep. Therefore, this study introduces CAR variability across multiple days as a novel measure to quantify CAR and investigates its relationship with mental health while regarding trait anxiety and psychological resilience as key variables under natural sleep observation and sleep deprivation manipulation scenarios. This study hypothesized that under the natural sleep condition, a smaller CAR variability reflects positive mental health characteristics, specifically higher psychological resilience scores and lower trait anxiety scores, while under the sleep deprivation condition, a greater CAR variability reflects positive mental health characteristics.
Two experiments were conducted to test these hypotheses. In Experiment 1, the CAR variability of 28 participants was reduced by decreasing sleep efficiency variability under natural sleep conditions. In Experiment 2, 40 participants experienced a full night of sleep deprivation following 2 natural sleep days to increase their CAR variability. All participants wore a sleep wristwatch to assess their sleep efficiency during the experimental period and provided 4 saliva samples at awakening and at 30, 45, and 60 minutes post-awakening to assess their CAR. The trait anxiety inventory and the Connor-Davidson resilience scale were used as key variables reflecting individual mental health. The relationship between CAR variability over multiple days and trait anxiety/psychological resilience was then examined.
Experiment 1 found a significant positive correlation between the variability of participants' subjective sleep efficiency over three days and their CAR variability. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was observed between CAR variability and trait anxiety scores over the three days, indicating that a smaller CAR variability in a stable environment is associated with lower levels of trait anxiety. Experiment 2 found no significant differences in CAR during the first two natural sleep days. However, on the third day, following a full night of sleep deprivation, CAR showed a marked blunting, with post-deprivation CAR levels being significantly lower than those recorded on the preceding two natural sleep days. Experiment 2 also found a significant positive correlation between CAR variability following sleep deprivation and psychological resilience, and this significant correlation was independent of daily stress factors. Therefore, a higher CAR variability in a changing environment is associated with higher levels of psychological resilience. When using the traditional CAR mean as a measure to explore its relationship with trait anxiety and psychological resilience, no significant correlations were found in either experiment.
These results suggest that in addition to mean CAR, CAR variability can be regarded as an effective physiological indicator for measuring mental health. Smaller CAR variability in stable environments is associated with lower levels of trait anxiety, while greater CAR variability in more variable environments is associated with higher levels of psychological resilience. This study emphasizes the importance of considering CAR variability over multiple days to understand how individuals adapt to daily stressors and challenges, thus providing new perspectives and potential approaches for promoting mental health and designing effective intervention strategies in the future.

Key words: cortisol awakening response (CAR), variability, sleep efficiency, trait anxiety, psychological resilience

中图分类号:

B845

杨子健, 赵小淋, 郭凯格, 罗家豪, 杜腾飞, 张雅洁, 胡月琴, 杨娟. (2025). 睡眠效率相关的皮质醇觉醒反应的变异性及其与特质焦虑和心理弹性的关系. 心理学报, 57(1), 84-99.

YANG Zijian, ZHAO Xiaolin, GUO Kaige, LUO Jiahao, DU Tengfei, ZHANG Yajie, HU Yueqin, YANG Juan. (2025). Variability in cortisol awakening response related to sleep efficiency and its relationship with trait anxiety and psychological resilience. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 57(1), 84-99.

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