Insomnia Symptom Severity Predicts Blunted Cortisol Reactivity to a Psychosocial Stressor
Members of the Sleep and Health Research Lab and affiliates recently published an article investigating the relationship between insomnia symptoms and cortisol responses to acute stress. Using an in-lab, cross-sectional design, symptoms of insomnia were assessed and salivary cortisol data was collected from 295 young adults following exposure to a psychosocial stressor. Findings indicated that greater insomnia severity was associated with a significantly more blunted cortisol response, even after controlling for gender and hormonal contraceptive usage. These data provide additional evidence that insomnia severity may be related to changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, particularly in response to acute stressors.
Click Here to Read the Full Article!
(Vargas et al., 2026)