The Effect of Sabbath Keeping on Cortisol in Seventh-day Adventist Men and Women

Abstract

Sabbath keeping is advocated by Abrahamic religions as a day of rest and worship. Some evidence suggests that religious practices may lower cortisol levels by reducing stress reactivity. Sabbath keeping can include more than worship attendance to improve stress biomarkers that ultimately impact health. We know of no studies that examine cortisol before and after the Sabbath in both men and women. This study examined 12-hour overnight urinary free cortisol levels of 285 Seventh-day Adventists randomly assigned to collections pre- or post-Sabbath in an archival data set. Random assignment to collection times should eliminate the possibility that the statistically significant observed results are due to differences in religious commitment or other variables including any interaction of a pretest with cortisol levels, since there was no pretest. After adjusting for demographics, health behaviors, socioeconomic covariates, as well as intrinsic religiosity and church attendance, urinary free cortisol was significantly lower after Sabbath in men but not in women. Furthermore, intrinsic religiosity demonstrated a significant interaction with cortisol day of collection; we conclude the cortisol differences by day are partially explained by religiousness. Gender differences may be explained by different gender expectations on Sabbath or by the “tend and befriend” hypothesis that posits women alleviate stress reactions with relational behaviors, while men alleviate stress with a flight-or-fight response.