Sleep complaints predict increases in resting blood pressure following marital separation.

Abstract

Objective Although marital separation and divorce are associated with many negative health outcomes, few studies examine the psychophysiological mechanisms that may give rise to these outcomes. This study examined changes in resting blood pressure (BP) as a function of sleep complaints in recently divorced adults. Method Recently separated adults (n = 138; 38 men) completed a self-report measure of sleep complaints and a resting blood pressure (BP) assessment in the laboratory at three occasions across 7.5 months. Results Multilevel analyses revealed that although sleep complaints were not associated with concurrent BP, sleep complaints predicted significant increases in both systolic and diastolic BP at the subsequent laboratory visit. In addition, time since the separation from an ex-partner moderated the association between sleep complaints at baseline and resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) 3 months later. People who reported high sleep complaints 10 weeks or more after their separation demonstrated greater increases in SBP. Conclusions In recently separated adults, greater sleep complaints may index increased risk for future increases in BP. This work helps pinpoint one potential mechanistic pathway linking marital separation with an important, health-relevant biological outcome.

Shortened sleep fuels inflammatory responses to marital conflict: Emotion regulation matters

“…Couples behaved more negatively and less positively only when both partners had slept less. This study contributes to a growing literature identifying mechanisms that link sleep to long-term health risks (Krietsch et al, 2014). Findings also point to the value of a dyadic approach for understanding the dynamics of sleep and inflammation.…”

Impact of Narrative Expressive Writing on Heart Rate, Heart Rate Variability, and Blood Pressure After Marital Separation

“…As reported in Sbarra et al (8), participants were recruited from 2006-2009 for a longitudinal sample with three assessments, the second of which occurred 3-months after their initial assessment. For the third assessment they were randomly assigned to complete their follow-up at either 6 or 9-months from T1; this sampling procedure was part of a planned missingness design (15). We refer to these assessment occasions as Time 1 (T1), T2, and T3, respectively, in the remainder of the paper.…”

“…Beyond HRV, no studies have examined heart rate (HR), which is also an independent predictor of morbidity and mortality, especially among people with pre-clinical disease (12-13), following marital separation; including this construct as an outcome measure will be an informative addition to the literature in this area. Divorcing adults who report more separation-related emotional distress also have higher resting blood pressure (14), and recently-separated adults who report greater sleep disturbances evidenced increases in resting blood pressure over time (15). Prior studies have also investigated cardiovascular reactivity following marital separation—e.g., the prospective recent evidence suggests that the association between divorce-specific BP reactivity and divorce-related subjective distress depends on variability in HRV at a given occasion (16; also see 14, 33).…”

Heart Rate Variability Moderates the Association Between Separation-Related Psychological Distress and Blood Pressure Reactivity Over Time

“…(We refer to these assessment occasions as Time 1 (T1), T2, and T3, respectively, in the remainder of the paper.) For the third assessment they were randomly assigned to complete their follow-up at either 6 or 9-months from T1; this sampling procedure was part of a planned missingness design and is discussed in detail elsewhere (see Krietsch, Mason, & Sbarra, 2014). As a result, we report our results as evidencing estimates for 7.5 months of prospective assessment, on average.…”