title: The relationship between a night's sleep and subsequent daytime functioning in older poor and good sleepers.
abstract: Those suffering insomnia symptoms generally report daytime impairments. However, research has not assessed whether this relationship holds on a nightly basis, despite the strongly held belief that a night of poor sleep impairs mood and functioning the following day. The objective of this study was to test this relationship in a group of older poor sleepers with insomnia symptoms compared with good sleepers. This study utilized a within-subjects design to investigate day-to-day subjective daytime functioning and its relation to the previous night's sleep. Seventeen older individuals (mean age: 67.5 years) were identified with a retrospective questionnaire and 2 weeks of sleep-wake diary to have poor sleep consistent with insomnia. Seventeen good sleepers (mean age: 67.8 years) were selected using the same measures. Participants reported their beliefs about sleep and daytime functioning on the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes about Sleep Scale (DBAS-16). One week later they commenced a 14-day period of sleep-wake diaries and concurrent responses to a modified Daytime Insomnia Symptom Scale (DISS). Results showed significant night-to-day covariation between sleep efficiency and daytime functioning for individuals with poor sleep (r = 0.34), but not for good sleepers (r = 0.08). Those poor sleepers who held this covariation belief most strongly were those who subsequently showed this night-to-day relationship the most strongly (r = 0.56). This was not true for good sleepers. For those suffering insomnia, these findings demonstrate their belief that a poor sleep is followed by an impaired daytime, consistent with their experience.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
authors.forename: Rashelle A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Leon C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lack
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lovato
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001290:Attitude; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005221:Fatigue / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D007319:Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: insomnia treatment; night-to-day relationships