Frontal white matter association with sleep quality and the role of stress

Abstract

An important measure of brain health is the integrity of white matter connectivity structures that link brain regions. Studies have found an association between poorer sleep quality and decreased white matter integrity. Stress is among the strongest predictors of sleep quality. This study aimed to evaluate the association between sleep quality and white matter and to test if the relationship persisted after accounting for stress. White matter microstructures were measured by diffusion tensor imaging in a population of Old Order Amish/Mennonite (N = 240). Sleep quality was determined by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Current stress levels were measured by the perceived stress scale. Exposure to lifetime stress was measured by the lifetime stressor inventory. Microstructures of four white matter tracts: left and right anterior limbs of internal capsule, left anterior corona radiata, and genu of corpus callosum were significantly correlated with sleep quality (all p ≤ 0.001). The current stress level was a significant predictor of sleep quality (p ≤ 0.001) while lifetime stress was not.PSQI remained significantly associated with white matter integrity in these frontal tracts (all p < 0.01) after accounting for current stress and lifetime stress, while current and lifetime stress were not significant predictors of white matter in any of the four models. Sleep quality did not have any substantial mediation role between stress and white matter integrity. Sleep quality was significantly associated with several frontal white matter tracts that connect brain structures important for sleep regulation regardless of current or past stress levels.

Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on stress and sleep in emergency room professionals

“…In the study by Manzanares et al (2021), besides finding high stress levels, high resilience levels were observed despite COVID-19. Kuo et al (2020) Bruce et al, 2022;David et al, 2022;Jowkar et al, 2022;Karimi et al, 2022;Kim et al, 2022). Another study that compared stress and sleep disorders during the first wave of COVID-19 and 9 months later found that this association was not only cross-sectional but also longitudinal (Ballesio et al, 2022).…”

Association between Family Support, Stress, and Sleep Quality among College Students during the COVID-19 Online Learning Period

“…Stress partially mediated the relationship between FS and SQ. Previous studies have demonstrated the association between having higher levels of stress and poorer SQ among college students [47,48]. FS is demonstrated by the fact that children can communicate with their parents about the difficulties they encounter and receive some emotional support and material resources to solve their problems through their families, thus eliminating the burden of stress and further improving their SQ problems.…”

The Influence of Life Stress and Sleep Disturbance on White Matter Integrity

“…However, only one prior study investigated how the interaction between sleep and stress affected the white matter tracts of elderly subjects [ 3 ], and found that poor sleep quality induced more changes than did stress; no mediation effect of sleep and stress was apparent. However, even if sleep disturbances exert stronger effects than stress, the effects of such disturbances associated with stress should differ from those of sleep disturbances without stress.…”

“…Such changes have been reported in the internal capsule, corona radiata, thalamus, and frontal regions of insomnia patients. [3][4][5] Thus, white matter neural connectivity may be compromised by sleep problems.Life stress could also affect white matter. Patients with depression who were exposed to high levels of life stress exhibited greater increases in white matter hyperintensity volumes than did those exposed to less stress, despite similar levels of depression.…”

“…Such changes have been reported in the internal capsule, corona radiata, thalamus, and frontal regions of insomnia patients. [3][4][5] Thus, white matter neural connectivity may be compromised by sleep problems.…”