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. 2014 Jul 1;9(7):e101368.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101368. eCollection 2014.

A population-based investigation into the self-reported reasons for sleep problems

David Armstrong  1 , Alex Dregan  2
Affiliations

A population-based investigation into the self-reported reasons for sleep problems

David Armstrong et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Typologies of sleep problems have usually relied on identifying underlying causes or symptom clusters. In this study the value of using the patient's own reasons for sleep disturbance are explored. Using secondary data analysis of a nationally representative psychiatric survey the patterning of the various reasons respondents provided for self-reported sleep problems were examined. Over two thirds (69.3%) of respondents could identify a specific reason for their sleep problem with worry (37.9%) and illness (20.1%) representing the most commonly reported reasons. And while women reported more sleep problems for almost every reason compared with men, the patterning of reasons by age showed marked variability. Sleep problem symptoms such as difficulty getting to sleep or waking early also showed variability by different reasons as did the association with major correlates such as worry, depression, anxiety and poor health. While prevalence surveys of 'insomnia' or 'poor sleep' often assume the identification of an underlying homogeneous construct there may be grounds for recognising the existence of different sleep problem types particularly in the context of the patient's perceived reason for the problem.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Diagram showing the number of people reporting sleep problems in the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey and associated main reason.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Reasons for sleep disturbance by gender.
The bars represent the 95% upper 95% confidence intervals for the frequency of each reason for sleep problems by gender.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Distribution of main reasons for sleep problems by age groups.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Graphs showing the patterning of the main reason for sleep problems with different sleep behavior measures.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Graphs showing the patterning of the main reason for sleep problems with main sleep correlates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Publication types