Examining subjective sleep quality in adults with hoarding disorder

Poor Sleep Quality and Daytime Fatigue Are Associated With Subjective but Not Objective Cognitive Functioning in Clinically Relevant Hoarding

“…Consistent with a previous investigation ( 9 ), our findings suggest that individuals with HSs report sleep impairment at significantly higher rates than those without hoarding. Although all measures of sleep impairment were more frequently reported by participants with CHSs, the odds of poor sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and daytime dysfunction in particular were two- to fivefold higher for individuals with CHSs compared with those without, even after adjustment for demographic characteristics and health status.…”

“…Importantly, further investigation of 40 individuals with HD suggests that the association between hoarding symptom severity and sleep disturbance remains significant even when controlling for the ability to sleep in one’s bed, suggesting that hoarding symptoms (HSs) other than clutter play a large role in sleep impairment among individuals with hoarding behavior ( 8 ). To date, only one study has compared sleep impairment among individuals with hoarding with those with other psychiatric disorders and healthy control participants; findings indicate elevated insomnia symptoms and poorer sleep quality among individuals with HD compared with healthy control participants but not compared with those with obsessive-compulsive disorder ( 9 ). However, these findings have not been replicated and are limited in generalizability owing to the use of relatively small, treatment-seeking samples.…”

Written Imaginal Exposure for Hoarding Disorder

“…Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) improves symptoms of HD for many (Tolin et al, 2015), but a considerable proportion refuse treatment (44%; Steketee et al, 2010) or drop out of treatment prematurely (10%–29%; Saxena et al, 2011; Steketee et al, 2010). In addition to primary symptoms around difficulty discarding, people with HD have a host of other concomitant difficulties such as sleep disturbance and poor nutrition (Frost et al, 2012; Mahnke et al, 2021). Research is needed to develop alternative approaches for helping people with HD who are not ready to engage in CBT or who do not have access to it.…”