Dependent negative life events and sleep quality: An examination of gene–environment interplay

Barclay, Nicola L.; Eley, Thalia C.; Rijsdijk, Frühling; Gregory, Alice M.

doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2010.09.009

Cited by 37 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While it was beyond the scope of this study to specify environmental influences involved in the association, candidates come from previous work. For example, important environmental influences might include negative life events, which are plausibly associated with poorer sleep quality 38 and depression symptoms. 39 Such influences are able to explain both concurrent and longitudinal relationships between variables, given the dynamic nature of the associations between stress and depression over time.…”

Section: Environmental Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Twin and Sibling Study of Associations between Insomnia and Depression Symptoms in Young Adults

Gregory

Rijsdijk

Eley

et al. 2016

Sleep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Study Objectives: To estimate genetic and environmental influences on the associations between insomnia and depression symptoms concurrently and longitudinally. Methods: Behavioral genetic analyses were conducted on data from the British longitudinal G1219 twin/sibling study. One thousand five hundred fiftysix twins and siblings participated at Time 1 (mean age = 20.3 years, SD = 1.76). Eight hundred sixty-two participated at Time 2 (mean age = 25.2 years, SD = 1.73 years). Participants completed the Insomnia Symptoms Questionnaire and the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire to assess symptoms of insomnia and depression respectively. Results: Genetic effects accounted for 33% to 41% of the variance of the phenotypes. The phenotypic correlations were moderate (r = 0.34 to r = 0.52). The genetic correlations between the variables were high (0.73-1.00). Genetic effects accounted for a substantial proportion of the associations between variables (50% to 90%). Non-shared environmental effects explained the rest of the variance and covariance of the traits. Conclusions: While genetic effects play a modest role in insomnia and depression symptoms separately, they appear to play a more central role in concurrent and longitudinal associations between these phenotypes. This should be acknowledged in theories explaining these common associations.

show abstract

Section: Environmental Influencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Longitudinal Twin and Sibling Study of Associations between Insomnia and Depression Symptoms in Young Adults

Gregory

Rijsdijk

Eley

et al. 2016

Sleep

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our own twin study is one of the only studies to date to investigate these processes in relation to sleep. (6) We focused on understanding the interplay between genes and negative life events on sleep quality, finding that experiencing a greater number of negative life events in the past year was associated with poorer sleep quality. Most interestingly, however, was evidence for a substantial genetic correlation between dependent negative life events (events that are partially dependent on one's behaviour, such as the break-up of a steady relationship) and sleep quality (rA = .62),…”

Section: Gene-environment Interplaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, twin studies allow us to investigate not only the additive effects of genetic and environmental influences on traits, but can unravel the complex interplay between these influences through processes of rGE and GxE. Extensive research has investigated geneenvironment interplay for a number of emotional and behavioural traits (5) , including sleep (6) , discussed later in this review.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative genetic research on sleep: A review of normal sleep, sleep disturbances and associated emotional, behavioural, and health-related difficulties

Barclay¹,

Gregory²

2013

Sleep Medicine Reviews

Self Cite

116

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past 50 years, well over 100 twin studies have focussed on understanding factors contributing to variability in normal sleep-wake characteristics and sleep disturbances.Whilst we have gained a great deal from these studies, there is still much to be learnt. Twin studies can be used in multiple ways to answer questions beyond simply estimating heritability. This paper provides a comprehensive review of some of the most important findings from twin studies relating to sleep to date, with a focus on studies investigating genetic and environmental influences contributing to i) objective and subjective measures of normal sleep characteristics (e.g. sleep stage organisation, sleep quality); as well as sleep disturbances and disorders such as dyssomnias (e.g. insomnia, narcolepsy) and parasomnias (e.g. sleepwalking, bruxism); ii) the persistence of sleep problems from childhood to adulthood, and the possibility that the aetiological influences on sleep change with age; iii) the associations between sleep disturbances, emotional, behavioural and health-related problems; and iv) processes of gene-environment correlation and interaction. We highlight avenues for further research, emphasising the need to further consider the aetiology of longitudinal associations between sleep disturbances and psychopathology; the genetic and environmental overlap between sleep and numerous phenotypes; and processes of geneenvironment interplay and epigenetics.

show abstract

“…Ignoring the possibility of G Â E may lead to incorrect conclusions about the importance of genes if their effects only manifest in particular environments. Here, we consider self-reported negative life events as a candidate environmental measure to include in these analyses, since these have previously been found to moderate genetic liability to psychopathology [Caspi et al, 2003], and the experience of negative life events is known to be associated with sleep difficulties [Sadeh, 1996;Lavie, 2001;Gregory et al, 2006;Vahtera et al, 2007;Mezick et al, 2009;Barclay et al, 2011]. Evidence for variability in sleep between individuals exposed to similar levels of negative life events would suggest that there may be individual variability in genetic susceptibility to sleep disturbance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep quality and diurnal preference in a sample of young adults: Associations with 5HTTLPR, PER3, and CLOCK 3111

Barclay¹,

Eley²,

Mill³

et al. 2011

American J of Med Genetics Pt B

Self Cite

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research investigating associations between specific genes and individual differences with regards to the quality and timing of sleep has primarily focussed on serotonin-related and clock genes. However, there are only a few studies of this type and most of those to date have not considered the possibility of gene-environment interaction. Here, we describe associations between sleep quality and diurnal preference and three functional polymorphisms: 5HTTLPR, PERIOD3, and CLOCK 3111. Furthermore, we assessed whether associations between genotypes and sleep phenotypes were moderated by negative life events-a test of gene-environment interaction. DNA from buccal swabs was collected from 947 individuals [mean age = 20.3 years (SD = 1.77), age range = 18-27 years; 61.8% female] and genotyped for the three polymorphisms. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. There was a significant main effect of 5HTTLPR on sleep quality, indicating that "long-long" homozygotes experienced significantly poorer sleep quality (mean = 6.35, SD = 3.36) than carriers of at least one "short" allele (mean = 5.67, SD = 2.96; β = -0.34, P = 0.005). There were no main effects of 5HTTLPR on diurnal preference; no main effects of PERIOD3 or CLOCK on sleep quality or diurnal preference; and no significant interactions with negative life events. The main effect of the "long" 5HTTLPR allele contradicts previous research, suggesting that perhaps the effects of this gene are heterogeneous in different populations. Failure to replicate previous research in relation to PERIOD3 and CLOCK concurs with previous research suggesting that the effects of these genes are small and may be related to population composition.

show abstract

Dependent negative life events and sleep quality: An examination of gene–environment interplay

Cited by 37 publications

References 70 publications

A Longitudinal Twin and Sibling Study of Associations between Insomnia and Depression Symptoms in Young Adults

A Longitudinal Twin and Sibling Study of Associations between Insomnia and Depression Symptoms in Young Adults

Quantitative genetic research on sleep: A review of normal sleep, sleep disturbances and associated emotional, behavioural, and health-related difficulties

Sleep quality and diurnal preference in a sample of young adults: Associations with 5HTTLPR, PER3, and CLOCK 3111

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About