Hey Mr. Sandman: dyadic effects of anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep among married couples

Abstract

This study examined associations among anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep duration in a sample of middle-aged couples using the actor-partner interaction model with dyadic data. Self-report measures were completed independently by both partners as part of the health histories obtained during their annual preventive medical examinations in 2011 and 2012. Results showed that husbands' anxiety and depressive symptoms had a stronger effect on their wives' anxiety and depression than the other way around, but this was not moderated by one's own sleep duration. For both wives and husbands, higher levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety predicted shorter sleep duration for their partner 1 year later, although the effect of husbands' mental health on their wives' was again stronger. The findings suggest that sleep problems might better be treated as a couple-level phenomenon than an individual one, particularly for women.

Own and partner pain intensity in older couples: longitudinal effects on depressive symptoms

“…This implies that pain intensity may have greater effects on depressive symptoms than vice versa. As a whole, the findings are in line with interdependence theory [62] and prior studies highlighting strong mutual health-related influences in later life marriages [3,11,24,47,54,59,67]. …”

“…Spouses in turn shape both their own and their partner’s health trajectories, and these influences may become even stronger as couples age [24,43]. Supporting these perspectives, prior work demonstrates within-couple interrelations in depressed mood along with a range of other health indicators including physical activity, functional limitations, and sleep duration [3,11,24,47,54,59,67]. Likewise, spouses’ greater pain intensity has been linked to their partner’s poorer psychological well-being in cross-sectional [15,36,63,66] and longitudinal [4,56,71] research.…”

Two in a bed: The influence of couple sleeping and chronotypes on relationship and sleep. An overview

“…Revenson et al (2016) investigated associations between anxiety and depression symptoms and couple sleep in a sample of 543 middle-aged couples. Results indicate that high levels of anxiety and depression had an influence on the partner’s sleep duration.…”

Lovesick: How Couples’ Relationships Influence Health

“…In a longitudinal study, depressive symptoms explained conflict-related declines in sleep quality and duration (El-Sheikh et al, 2015). A known risk to partner well-being (Benazon and Coyne, 2000), depression also predicted worse sleep problems for partners one year later (Revenson et al, 2016, El-Sheikh et al, 2015). …”