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Objectives: A growing body of work documents a link between indices of social connectedness and sleep health. Sleep is implicated in the chronic health conditions which disproportionately affect American Indian adults, however the relationship between social connectedness and sleep health is largely understudied in this population. The current project investigates relationships between multiple indices of social connectedness and sleep health in a sample of American Indian adults., Methods: In a sample of 275 American Indian adults residing in the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, we investigated links between social networks, loneliness, existential isolation (i.e., feeling alone in one's experiences) and sleep health. We used one linear regression model controlling for demographics and symptoms of anxiety and depression to investigate the relationship between measures of social connectedness and sleep health., Results: Existential isolation was the only statistically significant predictors of sleep health, with higher existential isolation relating to worse sleep health., Conclusion: Existential isolation may be a particularly important measure of social connectedness in American Indian adults. More research is needed to understand precursors of existential isolation and the mechanisms contributing to the relationship between existential isolation and sleep health in Blackfeet American Indian adults., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicts of interest The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Many college athletes experience insufficient sleep due to athletic, academic, and social constraints. While prior studies have observed cross-sectional associations between poor sleep and performance in athletes, few studies have longitudinally assessed performance variations in relation to sleep measures. We investigated whether objectively measured sleep assessments were associated with peak power output improvements during a fall season of Division I collegiate baseball players., Methods: Peak power output was assessed weekly for 12weeks in 24 male collegiate baseball players (age: 21±1years). Objective sleep (Oura ring) was assessed over the final 6weeks to determine total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and other assessments of sleep quality, including the proportion of nights in which athletes maintained total sleep time ≥7 hours or sleep efficiency ≥90%. Bivariate correlations between sleep measures and peak power output were performed., Results: Greater improvements in peak power output throughout the fall season were associated with higher total sleep time (r=0.429, p=.036), higher sleep efficiency (r=0.411, p=.046), and fewer nighttime awakenings (r=-0.495, p=.014). Furthermore, the rate of change in peak power output was associated with the proportion of nights in which athletes maintained total sleep time ≥7 hours (r=0.557, p=.005) or sleep efficiency ≥90% (r=0.509, p=.011)., Conclusions: These findings support an association between adequate sleep duration, quality, and consistency in training season performance trajectories in college athletes., Data Availability: Data will be made available upon reasonable request by the corresponding author., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicts of interest None., (Copyright © 2025 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) responsiveness to mental stress is highly variable between individuals. Although stress perception has been posited as a contributor to the MSNA variability during mental stress, prior studies have been inconclusive. Furthermore, the importance of stress appraisal and coping on MSNA reactivity to mental stress has not been investigated. We hypothesize that appraisal of mental stress as a threat (i.e., perceived demands of stress exceed coping resources) versus a challenge (i.e., perceived coping resources sufficient for demands of stress) would be associated with greater MSNA reactivity. Twenty healthy adults (11 males, 9 females, 21 ± 3 yr, 23 ± 3 kg/m 2 ) participated. Beat-by-beat blood pressure (finger plethysmography), heart rate (electrocardiography), and MSNA (microneurography) were recorded during a 10-min quiet rest followed by the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). After each phase of the TSST (i.e., speech prep, speech, and mental arithmetic), participants reported threat versus challenge appraisal. Endorsement of a threat appraisal was positively associated with changes in MSNA burst frequency ( r = 0.548, P = 0.018), burst incidence ( r = 0.599, P = 0.009), and total MSNA ( r = 0.697, P = 0.037) during the speech stress period. Moreover, increases in threat appraisal across tasks was associated with elevated MSNA burst frequency ( r = 0.531, P = 0.023), incidence ( r = 0.512, P = 0.030), and total MSNA ( r = 0.727, P = 0.027) responsiveness. These findings support an association between stress appraisal processes and postganglionic sympathetic neural reactivity to psychosocial stress and may partially explain interindividual variability in MSNA responses to mental stress. NEW & NOTEWORTHY The present study investigated the association between stress appraisal and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test. Appraisal of the stress task as a threat (i.e., perceived inability to cope with the demands of the task) was associated with exaggerated MSNA reactivity to mental stress in humans. Threat appraisal is associated with exaggerated sympathetic reactivity to stress, potentially underlying the commonly observed interindividual variability in MSNA responsiveness to mental stress.