Preliminary evidence that misalignment between sleep and circadian timing alters risk‐taking preferences

Sep 19, 2022Journal of sleep research

Early evidence that mismatched sleep and body clock timing changes risk-taking choices

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Abstract

A shorter phase angle between dim-light melatonin onset and midsleep may predict greater risk-taking in decision-making tasks.

Greater misalignment between sleep timing and the central circadian clock is associated with variations in decision-making performance.
A shorter DLMO-midsleep phase angle predicted increased risk-taking in scenarios involving potential loss.
In contrast, a shorter phase angle also predicted decreased risk-taking when potential rewards were involved.
Misalignment did not have a predictive effect on framing and strategic reasoning tasks.
Findings suggest that circadian misalignment could be linked to risk-taking behaviors, particularly in late adolescents.

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Decision-making has been shown to suffer when circadian preference is misaligned with time of assessment; however, little is known about how misalignment between sleep timing and the central circadian clock impacts decision-making. This study captured naturally occurring variation in circadian alignment (i.e., alignment of sleep-wake timing with the central circadian clock) to examine if greater misalignment predicts worse decision-making. Over the course of 2 weeks, 32 late adolescent drinkers (aged 18-22 years; 61% female; 69% White) continuously wore actigraphs and completed two overnight in-laboratory visits (Thursday and Sunday) in which both dim-light melatonin onset (DLMO) and behavioural decision-making (risk taking, framing, and strategic reasoning tasks) were assessed. Sleep-wake timing was assessed by actigraphic midsleep from the 2 nights prior to each in-laboratory visit. Alignment was operationalised as the phase angle (interval) between average DLMO and average midsleep. Multilevel modelling was used to predict performance on decision-making tasks from circadian alignment during each in-laboratory visit; non-linear associations were also examined. Shorter DLMO-midsleep phase angle predicted greater risk-taking under conditions of potential loss (B = -0.11, p = 0.06), but less risk-taking under conditions of potential reward (B = 0.14, p = 0.03) in a curvilinear fashion. Misalignment did not predict outcomes in the framing and strategic reasoning tasks. Findings suggest that shorter alignment in timing of sleep with the central circadian clock (e.g., phase-delayed misalignment) may impact risky decision-making, further extending accumulating evidence that sleep/circadian factors are tied to risk-taking. Future studies will need to replicate findings and experimentally probe whether manipulating alignment influences decision-making.

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Preliminary evidence that misalignment between sleep and circadian timing alters risk‐taking preferences

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