subject: Anxiety and Sleep Disturbances [print this page] Anxiety and Sleep Disturbances Anxiety and Sleep Disturbances
Anxiety and Sleep
Anxiety and sleep often go together. People suffering from anxiety brought about by stressful circumstances in life are more prone to experiencing sleep disruptions for a minimum period of six months following the incident. This is what one study in the November SLEEP journal says.
Anxiety Linked to Sleep Disturbances
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health doctor Jussi Vahtera wrote the study. Vahtera used 16,627 men and women who reported uninterrupted sleep and 2,572 with disturbed slumber patterns for the research population sample. Participants took part in the longitudinal observation cohort study that lasted five years.
Each individual's liability toward anxiety sleep was measured using his overall feeling of stressfulness and hyperactivity symptoms, was initially gauged. Post-onset life happenings like divorces, violence, financial hardships, and illnesses or deaths in the family along with sleep disturbances were measured during the follow-up that was done after five years had passed.
The results of the study showed that both exposure to adverse life events and liability to anxiety had strong ties with sleep disruptions. For guys that had a tendency toward anxiety sleep disorder, the chance of sleep disturbance was 3.11 times greater for those who encountered a serious life event during the last six months than the rest. The less anxious set of men just had 1.13 probability of disturbed sleep. Men and women prone to anxiety had the sleep disturbance odds ratio for zero to six months following a divorce at 2.05, only 1.47 was noted for the counterpart non-anxiety liable population.
Vahtera said the post-five years follow-up revealed that harsh stressful events can set off sleep disruptions in individuals who slept undisturbed prior to the incident. Easily anxious people before the event appeared to be at greater risk for post-event sleep disruptions like insomnia or sleep apnea than the non-anxious set.
According to Vahtera, the study's strength lies in its design that made room for timing the occurrence of particular stress-filled events and pre-event predisposing characteristics that precipitated the start of the sleep disturbance. Control regarding many potential baffling factors proposes that observed links were not fully explained by obesity, chronic medical conditions, socioeconomic standing, or excessive alcohol intake at the introduction of the study said Vahtera.
People who think they are afflicted with a sleep disorder should rest easy. There are plenty of treatment options available to help them. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) provides accreditation to various full-service sleep institutes or centers as well as sleep-related breathing disorder labs offering treatment, management, diagnosis and long-term care answers. Check out these facilities and bridge the gap between anxiety and sleep today.
