Multidimensional perfectionism and sleep: the role of self-compassion

Previous research has documented relations between perfectionistic behavior and sleep difficulties in college students. However, very little research exists examining protective factors or conditions that moderate this association. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether self-compassion moderates the link between multidimensional perfectionism and sleep disturbance in a sample of college students. A total of 178 college students (M = 19.88, SD = 1.50) completed self-report measures assessing perfectionistic concerns and perfectionistic strivings (the two higher-order perfectionism dimensions), self-compassion, and sleep. Sleep was also measured objectively via wrist-actigraphy, which participants wore for three continuous weekday nights. Findings indicated several main effects of perfectionistic tendencies on sleep outcomes. Moreover, a significant and moderate interaction was observed between perfectionistic strivings and self-compassion when predicting subjective sleep quality. Simple slopes analyses indicated that the negative association between perfectionistic strivings and poor sleep quality was significant at high levels of self-compassion followed by average levels of self-compassion. Future research on theoretically supported moderator variables is necessary to further elucidate relations between perfectionism and other facets of sleep difficulties.