Summary: Researchers report that going to bed late is linked to reduced perceived control over obsessive thoughts for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Source: Binghamton University
New research from Binghamton University (State University of New York) links later bedtimes to diminished perceived control over obsessions and compulsions.
Researchers led by Meredith E. Coles, Professor of Psychology at Binghamton University, with former graduate student Jessica Schubert (now at the University of Michigan Medical School), monitored sleep and symptoms in thirty participants over one week. The sample included twenty people who met diagnostic criteria for OCD and ten who reported subthreshold OCD symptoms. Participants kept sleep diaries, wore actigraphs, and provided daily ratings of how much control they felt they had over obsessive thoughts and ritualized behaviors.
The study found a robust association between the previous night’s bedtime and perceived control over obsessions the next day. Specifically, later bedtimes predicted lower perceived ability to manage intrusive thoughts. A similar trend emerged for perceived control over compulsive behaviors. These relationships held after controlling for the prior day’s symptom ratings, suggesting that shifting sleep timing may directly influence the following day’s cognitive control related to OCD.
“We’re really interested in how unusual timing of sleep might affect cognitive functioning,” Schubert said. “One possibility is impulse control. It may be that shifting when you sleep reduces your ability to control thoughts and behaviors, making it harder to dismiss intrusive thoughts and to refrain from compulsive behaviors intended to reduce anxiety.”
On average, participants in the study reported going to bed around 12:30 a.m. Roughly 40% of the sample met criteria for delayed sleep phase disorder; those individuals typically went to bed near 3:00 a.m. Coles emphasized that timing appears to matter as much as total sleep quantity. “I always knew you were supposed to get eight hours of sleep, but I was never told it matters when you do it,” she said. “That we find specific negative consequences of sleeping at the wrong times is important to educate the public about.”
The investigators used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyze daily fluctuations in sleep timing and perceived control over obsessive and compulsive symptoms. Results showed a significant relation between previous night’s bedtime and next-day perceived control of obsessions (t(27) = -3.23, p < .01, b = -2.77), indicating that later bedtimes were associated with reduced perceived control of intrusive thoughts. The association between bedtime and perceived control of compulsions approached significance. Importantly, the reverse—perceived control predicting subsequent bedtime—was not supported by the data, consistent with the hypothesis that sleep timing influences symptom control rather than the other way around.
These findings align with theories that impaired inhibitory control contributes to OCD. If disrupted sleep timing undermines cognitive inhibition, people may struggle more to dismiss intrusive thoughts and to resist compulsive responses. This could help explain why individuals with both OCD and sleep/circadian disruption often experience more severe, treatment-resistant symptoms; many OCD therapies rely on the ability to refrain from compulsive behaviors, which requires intact inhibitory control.
Looking ahead, Coles and her team plan experimental pilot work to test whether shifting bedtime can improve symptoms. One proposed approach uses lightbox therapy to advance sleep timing and evaluate whether earlier bedtimes boost the ability to resist intrusive thoughts and reduce compulsions. If causal, interventions targeting circadian timing could become a useful complement to existing OCD treatments.
The paper, “Later bedtime is associated with decrements in perceived control of obsessions and compulsions,” was presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies. Authors include J.R. Schubert, M.E. Coles, and J. Arnedt. The abstract appears in the conference supplement for the journal Sleep (published online April 28, 2017; doi:10.1093/sleepj/zsx050.1127).
Methods: Thirty participants (20 with diagnosed OCD, 10 with subthreshold symptoms) participated in one week of monitoring. They wore actigraphs, completed daily sleep diaries, and rated their perceived control over obsessions and compulsions each day. Analyses used hierarchical linear modeling to examine how nightly bedtime related to next-day symptom control.
Key findings: Later previous-night bedtime predicted lower perceived control over obsessive thoughts the next day. The relationship with control over compulsions showed a similar pattern but did not reach full significance. Perceived control did not predict subsequent bedtime, supporting a directional effect from sleep timing to symptom control.
Institution: Meredith Coles, Binghamton University (State University of New York). Image credit: illustrative image used for context. Original conference abstract: Schubert JR, Coles ME, Arnedt J. “Later bedtime is associated with decrements in perceived control of obsessions and compulsions.” Sleep (conference supplement), April 28, 2017. doi:10.1093/sleepj/zsx050.1127