Research suggests that people with callous and unemotional traits sleep better at night

Professor Viding is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at PaLS. She worked with Professor Alice M Gregory (Goldsmiths, University of London), and Dan Denis (Harvard University) to test the hypothesis that higher levels of callous and unemotional traits were not associated with disrupted sleep.

The team asked 1,556 young adults about their sleep, their disruptive behaviour, callous and unemotional traits and anxiety. As expected, those who slept poorly reported higher levels of disruptive behaviour. However, the link was significantly stronger for those who had low levels of callous and unemotional traits; those with disruptive behaviour, who also lacked empathy and guilt, did not experience poorer sleep.

In an article for The Conversation, the researchers reported that they then asked a group of 338 people aged 18 to 66 the same questions. In addition, 43 participants wore devices with motion sensors to measure their sleep.

The association between poor sleep quality and disruptive behaviour was not found when measuring sleep with motion sensors. But from this sample, after considering the effects of age and sex of the participants, better sleep quality was associated with higher levels of callous and unemotional traits. This was assessed by both asking participants questions and by the information the motion sensors provided).

The research team wrote: 'A lot of attention has been paid to the way poor sleep has been associated with a number of different emotional and behavioural difficulties. But it may be that some risk traits and behaviour are actually associated with better sleep, and we need to do more work to understand if and why this is the case.'

Related:

• Full article on The Conversation
• Professor Essi Viding IRIS profile
• Division of Psychology and Language Sciences