Variability of sleep duration is related to subjective sleep quality and subjective well-being: an actigraphy study

• Published in: PloS one 2013-08, Vol.8 (8), p.e71292-e71292
• Main Authors: Lemola, Sakari, Ledermann, Thomas, Friedman, Elliot M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Actigraphy; Adult; Adults; African Americans; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anxiety; Bias; Biology; Body mass; Cross-Sectional Studies; Efficiency; Female; Humans; Insomnia; Latency; Male; Mediation; Medicine; Middle age; Middle Aged; Minority & ethnic groups; Mood; Older people; Perceptions; Personal Satisfaction; Population; Psychological aspects; Psychological factors; Quality; Quality assessment; Regression Analysis; Self Report; Sleep; Sleep - physiology; Stress (Psychology); Studies; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Time Factors; Variability; Well being
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071292

While there is a large body of evidence that poor subjective sleep quality is related to lower subjective well-being, studies on the relation of objective sleep measures and subjective well-being are fewer in number and less consistent in their findings. Using data of the Survey of Mid-Life in the United States (MIDUS), we investigated whether duration and quality of sleep, assessed by actigraphy, were related to subjective well-being and whether this relationship was mediated by subjective sleep quality. Three hundred and thirteen mainly white American individuals from the general population and 128 urban-dwelling African American individuals between 35 and 85 years of age were studied cross-sectionally. Sleep duration, variability of sleep duration, sleep onset latency, and time awake after sleep onset were assessed by actigraphy over a period of 7 days. Subjective sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, positive psychological well-being and symptoms of psychological distress were assessed with the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire. In both white and African Americans high day-to-day variability in sleep duration was related to lower levels of subjective well-being controlling age, gender, educational and marital status, and BMI. By contrast, sleep duration, sleep onset latency, and time awake after sleep onset were not related to subjective well-being controlling covariates and other sleep variables. Moreover, the relationship between variability in sleep duration and well-being was partially mediated by subjective sleep quality. The findings show that great day-to-day variability in sleep duration--more than average sleep duration--is related to poor subjective sleep quality and poor subjective well-being.