Linking emotional distress to unhealthy sleep duration: analysis of the 2009 National Health Interview Survey

Abstract

ObjectiveThe objective of the study was to examine the independent association of emotional distress with unhealthy sleep duration (defined as <7 or >8 hours).MethodsData from the 2009 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a cross-sectional household survey, were analyzed to investigate the associations of emotional distress with unhealthy sleep durations, adjusting for sociodemographic factors, health risks, and chronic diseases through hierarchical multiple logistic regression analysis.ParticipantsA total of 27,731 participants (age range 18–85 years) from the NHIS 2009 dataset were interviewed.MeasuresUnhealthy sleep duration is defined as sleep duration <7 or >8 hours, whereas healthy sleep is defined as sleep duration lasting for 7–8 hours. Emotional distress is based on the Kessler 6 Non-Specific Distress Battery, which assesses the frequency of feeling sad, nervous, restless, hopeless, worthless, and burdened, over a 30-day period.ResultsOf the sample, 51.7% were female; 83.1% were white and 16.9% were black. Eleven percent experienced emotional distress and 37.6% reported unhealthy sleep. Adjusted logistic regression analysis revealed that individuals with emotional distress had 55% greater odds of reporting unhealthy sleep (odds ratio [OR] =1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.42, 1.68, P<0.001).ConclusionEmotional distress, an important proxy for poor psychological health, was a significant predictor of unhealthy sleep, independent of the influences of several factors including demographic (age, education, sex, race/ethnicity, and family income), health risks (alcohol consumption and smoking status), and chronic diseases/conditions (diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and arthritis).

Psychological Distress Mediates the Association between Food Insecurity and Suboptimal Sleep Quality in Latinos with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

“…Sleep and wakefulness are disrupted by a variety of factors, including those that are physiologic, behavioral, and environmental (24). It also is well documented that psychological distress disturbs sleep (25)(26)(27)(28).…”

Travel Risks for Those With Serious Mental Illness

“…48 Insomnia is aggravated by long distance travel and jet lag, which can trigger psychotic relapse. This association was first reported in 1959, 49 with many more reports appearing since.…”

Development and validation of the Maugeri Sleep Quality and Distress Inventory (MaSQuDI–17)

“…Although distress is a construct that embraces three domains-psychological, behavioral and somatic symptoms [1]-it is usually assessed with standardized scales such as Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) [3] or Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) [4], which are self-report questionnaires focused on the associated aspects of anxiety and depression symptoms [1,5,6]. In addition to these, there are tools that measure non-specific distress [7][8][9] such as the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale [10,11] which is widely used to screen for mental disorders in the middle-aged general population. Finally, there is also the Psychological Distress Manifestations Measure Scale (PDMMS) designed to explore comorbidity among symptoms [12], but it is not a diagnostic tool as it was developed in a nonclinical population [8].…”

“…Many studies have demonstrated the bidirectional relationship between distress and unhealthy sleep defined as sleep with a duration less than 7 hours or longer than 8 hours [7,9,13,14]. Evidence indicates that emotional distress is associated with changes in sleep architecture, total sleep time, sleep quality, sleep efficiency, rapid eye movement sleep, sleep onset latency, and slow wave sleep [9,15].…”

“…Evidence indicates that emotional distress is associated with changes in sleep architecture, total sleep time, sleep quality, sleep efficiency, rapid eye movement sleep, sleep onset latency, and slow wave sleep [9,15]. Moreover, short ( 6 hours) and long sleep duration (!9 hours) have been shown to have a relationship with chronic disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes and mental health [16][17][18][19][20].…”