Abstract
Objectives
To examine the associations of actigraphy-assessed sleep timing and regularity with
psychological health in early late life women, whose circadian rhythms may be impacted
by aging.
Design
Cross-sectional.
Participants
A racially/ethnically diverse sample of 1197 community-dwelling women (mean age 65
years) enrolled in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.
Measures
Actigraphy-assessed sleep measures included timing (mean midpoint from sleep onset
to wake-up) and regularity (standard deviation of midpoint in hours). Psychological
health measures included a composite well-being score, the Center for Epidemiological
Studies Depression Scale, and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale. Linear and
logistic regression models, adjusted for covariates (including sleep duration), tested
associations between sleep and psychological health measures.
Results
After covariate adjustment, a sleep midpoint outside of 2:00-4: 00 AM was significantly
associated with depressive symptoms (β = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.06, 1.70) and scoring above
the cut-point for clinically significant depressive symptoms (OR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.15,
2.57). Sleep irregularity was significantly associated with lower psychological well-being
(β = -0.18, 95% CI = −0.33, −0.03), depressive (β = 1.36, 95% CI = 0.29, 2.44) and
anxiety (β = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.40, 1.46) symptoms, and scoring above the cut-point
for clinically significant depressive (OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.01, 2.79) and anxiety
(OR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.07, 2.43) symptoms.
Conclusion
Above and beyond sleep duration, a sleep midpoint outside of 2:00-4:00 AM was associated
with depressive symptoms while sleep irregularity was associated with multiple psychological
health domains in late life women.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 09, 2022
Accepted:
November 1,
2022
Received in revised form:
October 31,
2022
Received:
June 6,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
