Sleep Quality Reports From Family Caregivers and Matched Non-caregiving Controls in a Population-Based Study

Abstract

The stress of family caregiving may affect many health-related variables, including sleep. We evaluated differences in self-reported sleep quality between incident caregivers and matched non-caregiving controls from a national population-based study. Caregivers and controls were identified in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study and matched on seven different demographic and health history factors. Caregivers reported significantly longer sleep onset latency than controls, before and after adjusting for covariates (ps < .05). No differences were found on measures of total sleep time or sleep efficiency. Among caregivers only, employed persons reported less total sleep time and number of care hours was a significant predictor of total sleep time. Dementia caregivers did not differ from other caregivers. This is one of the few population-based studies of sleep quality in family caregivers. Additional research is needed to examine whether sleep disturbance contributes to greater health problems among caregivers.

The relationship between burden and caregiver’s sleep disturbances in dementia: a systematic review

“…Caregivers of PLwD tend to spend less than 7 hours in bed, having high amounts of wake, impacting not only sleep quantity but also sleep quality 6 . Studies have found negative impacts in sleep latency 1 , 7 , 18 , 27 , 32 , sleep fragmentation 13 , 18 , 19 , 26 , shorter sleep duration 3 , 18 , and low subjective sleep quality 1 , 2 , 33 . In smaller proportions, they found insomnia 8 , use of medication 1 , 29 , daytime dysfunction 3 , and low sleep efficiency 1 , 6 ( Table 3 ).…”

“…This systematic review aimed to analyze the relationship between burden and sleep disturbances in caregivers of PLwD. Recent studies have found that the most impaired sleep components were sleep latency (the time the person takes to fall asleep after going to bed) 1 , 5 , 18 , 26 , 33 and sleep fragmentation (sleep interruptions through the night) 13 , 18 , 19 , 26 . In addition, our findings corroborate the hypothesis that caregivers tend to spend less than seven hours in bed, leading to negative impacts on sleep quality and quantity, suggesting that this population has shorter sleep duration 3 , 18 , low subjective sleep quality 1 , 20 , maintenance insomnia 8 and low sleep efficiency 1 , 6 .…”

“…Sleep disorders are responsible for health problems such as high blood pressure 19 , higher Body Mass Index (BMI) 21 , high cortisol levels 12 , and psychiatric disorders 1 . Burden and sleep impairments often lead caregivers to present moderate depressive symptoms that lead to higher sleep latency, a greater number of wakes after sleeping, and low sleep efficiency 22 , 26 , 31 .…”

“…Among the studies analyzed, four were descriptive longitudinal 4,12,25,27 , twenty were descriptive cross-sectional 2,[4][5][6][7]9,11,13,[16][17][18][19]21,26,[29][30][31][32][33][34] , one was a randomized clinical trial 15 , one was a multi-centric cross-sectional prospective 28 , and one was a retrospective cross-sectional analysis 14 .…”

Subtypes of Transitions into a Family Caregiving Role: A Latent Class Analysis

“…Eligible caregivers who consented to participate in the CTS then participated in a structured telephone interview that collected additional information regarding their mental health, well-being, and caregiving experiences (Roth et al, 2020). More thorough descriptions of the CTS and the REGARDS study are provided elsewhere (Haley et al, 2020;Blinka et al, 2022), including a timeline of data collection sessions (Roth et al, 2020). The RE-GARDS and CTS were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Johns Hopkins University, respectively.…”