(iPoster) No Rest for the Partisans: Sleep Quality and Affective Polarization

• In Event: Poster Sessions: Polarization, Identity, and Democratic Vulnerability & Political Communication I
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Polarization, Identity, and Democratic Vulnerability

Abstract

We investigate sleep's relationship with affective polarization using a nationally representative 50-state U.S. survey (2025). While existing research examines sleep's links with political ideology and participation, its connection to affective polarization remains uncharted. Our analysis reveals that sleep duration associates with increased warmth toward both in-group and out-group partisans, yielding no net effect on polarization. However, sleep restlessness demonstrates a U-shaped relationship: individuals with either poor or excellent sleep exhibit heightened polarization compared to those with moderate restlessness. Additionally, eveningness (preference for later sleep-wake timing) associates positively with affective polarization. Critically, these patterns operate through distinct components of affective polarization. Poor sleep quality associates primarily with intensified out-group dislike, while excellent sleep quality relates primarily to strengthened in-group warmth. Eveningness also associates specifically with out-group dislike rather than in-group warmth. These divergent associations suggest distinct underlying processes may be at work. Poor sleep may relate to compromised emotional regulation and cognitive processing that amplifies negative reactions toward out-partisans. Eveningness may operate through social jet lag, the misalignment between biological sleep preferences and societal schedules that can produce chronic sleep debt and its associated regulatory impairments. Excellent sleep may facilitate stronger in-group attachments, though the mechanisms remain unclear (possibilities include enhanced cognitive resources for identity elaboration or increased psychological certainty in group commitments). Moderate restlessness may buffer against polarization by maintaining adequate emotional regulation while constraining the development of both extreme out-group hostility and heightened in-group loyalty. These observational findings suggest that sleep patterns relate to affective polarization through fundamentally different emotional pathways. Understanding these associations may inform efforts to protect democratic civility by attending not only to institutional design and political rhetoric, but also to the physiological conditions associated with cross-partisan tolerance.

Authors

• Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Fatih Erol, University of Idaho