The Association between Quality of Sleep and Quality of Social Relationships among Adolescents.

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Ben Cowan
Ben Cowan

Ben Cowan is a current junior (22′) at Wesleyan University majoring in Neuroscience and the College of Integrative Sciences. Currently he conducts research in the Thayer lab utilizing molecular dynamic simulations and bioinformatic analyses on allosteric and conformational activity of the CRIB-Par6 protein. In the future, he hopes to engage in computational neuroscience research to investigate the neural correlates underlying processes such as sleep, conscious states, and neurodegenerative diseases. In his free time, Ben enjoys reading philosophy, graphic design, making electronics, and making and listening to music.

Abstract: Proper sleep is a critical component to the development and maintenance of the psychological, biological, and social well-being especially for the developing adolescent brain (Tarokh, Saletin, & Carskadon, 2016). While the important restorative and homeostatic roles of sleep to cognitive activities remains a very active role of current neurobiological research, the implications sleep and sleep deprivation to the health of interpersonal aspects of human cognition has increasingly become an area of interest (Kent, Uchino, Cribbet, Bowen, & Smith, 2015). With the developmental maturation of the brain during adolescence, particularly in the formation of complex social ties and interpersonal bonds during late childhood and early young adulthood, understanding how the value of proper sleep and or the onset of sleep deprivation may associate with cognitive perceptions of relationships and our sense of feeling socially accepted is crucial. Through my research, I aim to investigate the associations between sleep quality and perceived social acceptance during adolescence and particularly whether or not such associations if present remain significant when controlling for other psychological mood disorders associated with poor sleep quality that may moderate such associations.

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