Co-regulation of fatigue and biopsychological stress measures in couples’ everyday lives

Abstract

Background: Knowledge about how fatigue develops, worsens, and what influences daily fatigue is still limited. As stress can influence fatigue, and being in a relationship either in-creases or decrease stress depending on the couple interaction, we investigated co-regulation of stress, fatigue, and biological markers in couples’ everyday lives. Methods: Fourty couples (age: 28±5 years) reported fatigue and stress levels 4 times a day for 5 consecutive days (1600 measures). Interactions with the partner, salivary cortisol (measure of HPA axis activity) and alpha-amylase (measure of ANS activity) were analyzed at the same time points. Data was analyzed using multilevel models of distinguishable dyads to account for the nested design. Results: Stress (women: p ≤ 0.001, men: p ≤ 0.001) and fatigue (women: p = .003, men: p = .020) were co-regulated within couples, and more so when partners had interacted with each other. Cortisol was co-regulated in both men and women (women: p ≤ 0.001, men: p ≤ 0.001), whereas regulation of alpha-amylase levels depending on the partner’s levels was only present in women (p = 0.002). Valence of interaction was negatively associated with fatigue (women: p ≤ 0.001, men: p = 0.011). Conclusions: Fatigue and stress levels during the day seem to be co-regulated within couples with particularly strong associations when the partners interact with each other. These data suggest that in interventions to address stress and fatigue with clinical groups, a dyadic perspective might be implemented in order to improve individual well-being.