Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Mar 16:10:575-82.
doi: 10.2147/CIA.S77384. eCollection 2015.

Sleep cognitions associated with anxiety and depression in the elderly

Marie-France Leblanc  1 , Sophie Desjardins  1 , Alain Desgagné  2
Affiliations

Sleep cognitions associated with anxiety and depression in the elderly

Marie-France Leblanc et al. Clin Interv Aging. .

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify the maladaptive sleep-related cognitions most often maintained by the elderly, according to the presence or absence of anxiety and mood disorders. The presence of dysfunctional sleep-related beliefs and attitudes at bedtime in asymptomatic, depressive, and anxious seniors was thus compared. The second objective was to verify the relationships between various dysfunctional cognitions and mental disorders.

Method: The sample in this study consisted of 2,759 participants aged 65 years and over, with a mean age of 73.8 years. They were recruited through a method of random generation of telephone numbers according to a sampling strategy based on geographic location. After the goal of the study was explained to them, the participants agreed to have health professionals visit their home and to answer questions in a 1.5-hour-long structured interview (after signing a consent form).

Results: Depressive and anxious seniors adopt dysfunctional sleep-related cognitions in higher proportions than asymptomatic older persons. Once we had controlled for the other factors, we were able to specifically link two sleep-related beliefs and all the sleep-related attitudes studied to the probability of being anxious or depressive.

Conclusion: The clarifications obtained will make it possible to improve detection, assessment, and intervention processes regarding anxiety or mood disorders, by pinpointing the most direct link between each of the dysfunctional cognitions and the two types of mental disorders, and not just the link to sleep problems.

Keywords: attitudes; beliefs; insomnia; mental health; thoughts; worries.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Préville M, Boyer R, Vasiliadis HM, et al. Scientific Committee of the ESA Study One-year incidence of psychiatric disorders in Quebec’s older adult population. Can J Psychiatry. 2010;55(7):449–457. - PubMed
    1. Bellamy V, Roelandt JL, Caria A. Troubles mentaux et représentations de la santé mentale: premiers résultats de l’enquête Santé mentale en population générale. [Mental disorders and mental health representations: first results of the French general population study on mental health] Études et résultats. 2004;347:1–12. French.
    1. Carney CE, Edinger JD, Manber R, Garson C, Segal ZV. Beliefs about sleep in disorders characterized by sleep and mood disturbance. J Psychosom Res. 2007;62(2):179–188. - PubMed
    1. Clark DA. The persistent problem of negative cognition in anxiety and depression: new perspectives and old controversies. Behav Ther. 2001;32(1):3–12.
    1. Neikrug AB, Ancoli-Israel S. Sleep disorders in the older adult – a mini-review. Gerontology. 2010;56(2):181–189. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types