Loneliness impairs daytime functioning but not sleep duration.
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the prospective association between daily feelings of loneliness and subsequent feelings of daytime dysfunction indicative of poor sleep quality. DESIGN: Three consecutive end-of-day diaries were completed by a population-based sample of 215 adults (mean age = 57.5 years, SD = 4.4). Diary questions probed sleep duration, daytime dysfunction (i.e., fatigue, low energy, sleepiness), loneliness, physical symptoms, and depressed affect experienced that day. Chronic health condition data and body mass index were also obtained. Autoregressive cross-lagged panel models were used to examine the magnitude of reciprocal prospective associations between loneliness and daytime dysfunction. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Unstandardized path coefficients adjusted for race/ethnicity, sleep duration, marital status, household income, chronic health conditions, and health symptom severity. RESULTS: Daily variations in loneliness predicted subsequent feelings of daytime dysfunction (B = 0.16, p < .05), and daytime dysfunction predicted subsequent loneliness (B = 0.07, p < .05), adjusted for covariates. Loneliness continued to predict subsequent daytime dysfunction when depressed affect was held constant. CONCLUSION: The effect of loneliness on daytime dysfunction was independent of sleep duration, suggesting that the same amount of sleep is less salubrious when individuals feel more socially isolated.
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Perceived social isolation predicts greater vascular resistance, higher blood pressure, morning cortisol rise, poorer sleep, and sedentary lifestyles beyond what objective isolation predicts.
“Beyond what is predicted by objective isolation, perceived isolation predicts greater vascular resistance,26 elevated blood pressure,27,28 morning rise in cortisol,29 less salubrious sleep,28,30 and sedentary lifestyles.31”
From Social isolation (2011) · cites this paper as [28]
Higher rates of mortality among lonely older adults have been reported by a number of researchers.
“Higher rates of mortality among lonely older adults have been reported by a number of researchers [15, 23, 24].”
From Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis (2016) · cites this paper as [24]
The overall effect size of loneliness on mortality is difficult to summarize due to lack of uniform measures of loneliness, differences in inclusion of statistical controls, and use of analytic procedures that ignore survival time and censored data.
“In particular, across research studies, the overall effect size of loneliness on mortality is difficult to summarize due to the lack of uniform measures of loneliness [5], differences in the inclusion of statistical controls [26], and the use of analytic procedures that ignore survival time and censored data [24].”
From Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis (2016) · cites this paper as [24]
Prospective, longitudinal links between loneliness and mental and physical health have rarely been examined in previous mortality studies, with a few exceptions.
“However, with a few exceptions [e.g., 24, 23], prospective, longitudinal links between loneliness and mental and physical health have rarely been examined in previous mortality studies.”
From Loneliness and health in older adults: a mini-review and synthesis (2016) · cites this paper as [24]
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References 45 · Cited by 247
- Authors
- Hawkley, L. C., Preacher, K. J., & Cacioppo, J. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- University of Kansas (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hawkley, Louise C.
- Venue
- Health Psychology
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 124-129
- ISSN
- 0278-6133 (ISSN-L)
- 1930-7810
- PMC
- PMC2841303
- OpenAlex
- W2163448249
- Cited by
- 247
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 14.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Health Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (PO1 AG18911; RO1 AG034052-01)
- Templeton Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Keywords
- loneliness, daytime dysfunction, sleep quality, sleep duration, fatigue, social isolation, depressive affect, daily diary, bidirectional relationship, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Activities of Daily Living, Affect, Aged, Depression, Female, Humans, Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders, Loneliness, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Prospective Studies, Quality of Life, Risk Factors, Social Isolation, Somatoform Disorders, Statistics as Topic, Wakefulness, Health Behavior
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