Association of perceived stress with sleep duration and sleep quality in police officers

Abstract

The objective was to investigate associations ofperceived stress with sleep duration and quality among 430 police officers. Perceived stress was assessed using the perceived stress scale. Sleep duration and quality were assessed using the Pittsburg sleep quality index questionnaire. Mean hours of sleep were determined across quartiles of perceived stress using ANOVA/ANCOVA. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for poor sleep quality across perceived stress quartiles. Mean age was 42.1 years. Perceived stress was inversely associated with sleep duration among certain groups: men (p = 0.004), higher-ranked officers (p = 0.002), those with higher depressive symptoms (p 0.097), no military experience (p = 0.006), and higher workload (p = 0.003). Gender, police rank, depressive symptoms, and workload each significantly modified the association between stress and sleep duration. Prevalence of poor sleep quality increased with higher levels of perceived stress; the trend was significant among men only (p < 0.0001), and gender significantly modified this association (interaction p = 0.015). Compared to those in the first quartile of perceived stress, women in the fourth quartile were almost four times and men almost six times more likely to have poor sleep quality. Perceived stress was inversely associated with sleep duration and positively associated with poor sleep quality.