Reframing stress: The impact of stress mindset on adolescent sleep health

Stress mindset—how individuals perceive stress as either enhancing or debilitating—shapes stress experiences and influences mental and physical health outcomes. Yet, its relationship with sleep health remains underexplored. This study examined the longitudinal association between stress mindset and sleep health among Chinese adolescents and tested whether stress mindset moderates the adverse effects of stress on sleep. We analyzed two-wave data from 4,897 adolescents (M_age = 13.34, SD = 0.64, range = 10–15 years; 50.6% girls) from two middle schools in Sichuan Province, China. At baseline and 1 year later, adolescents completed self-report measures of stress mindset, stress experience, sleep outcomes, and demographic information including age, gender, subjective socioeconomic status, parental education level, and boarding status. A stress-is-enhancing mindset, compared to a stress-is-debilitating mindset, predicted longer sleep duration and better sleep quality 1 year later, independent of baseline sleep outcomes, stress levels, and demographic factors. Additionally, stress mindset moderated the association between stress levels and sleep duration, with a stress-is-enhancing mindset buffering against the negative impact of stress levels on sleep duration. Findings underscore the protective role of a stress-is-enhancing mindset in improving sleep quantity and quality, particularly under high stress. Interventions fostering a stress-is-enhancing mindset may be a promising approach to improving adolescent sleep health.