Association of hostility with sleep duration and sleep disturbances in an employee population.
BACKGROUND
Sleep disturbances are common among the general population, and hostile persons have been proposed to be at greater risk of several serious health problems and diseases.


OBJECTIVE
This study examined the relationships between hostility, sleep disturbances, and sleep duration in a large non-clinical sample of 5,433 employees working in 12 Finnish hospitals.


METHODS
Data were collected by questionnaire surveys in 1998 and 2000.


RESULTS
Higher hostility was cross-sectionally associated with increased sleep disturbances but not with sleep duration after adjustment for gender, age, marital status, education, shift work, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, psychiatric morbidity, and somatic disease. A stratified analysis distinguishing individuals with stable hostility across the two measurements and those with transient hostility (> 0.5 SD difference between measurements) replicated the association with increased sleep disturbance in both groups, but among those with transient hostility, there additionally was a cross-sectional association between higher hostility and shorter sleep duration.


CONCLUSIONS
Our evidence suggests that hostility is an independent risk factor for sleep disturbances and that transient hostility may also predispose shorter sleep duration. However, the effect sizes for all these associations were small, suggesting limited clinical significance for our findings.
Grano
Niklas
N
Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland. niklas.z.grano@helsinki.fi
Vahtera
Jussi
J
Virtanen
Marianna
M
Keltikangas-Jarvinen
Liisa
L
Kivimaki
Mika
M
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires