Sleep Quality and Anxiety Level in Employees

Summary & key facts

Researchers surveyed 130 university employees to measure sleep quality and anxiety using standard questionnaires. They found that about 39% of the people had poor sleep. People with worse sleep tended to have higher anxiety. Women, people who said their income did not meet expenses, people with a chronic illness or who took regular medication, and people with a known sleep disorder showed higher anxiety or poorer sleep. The study is a single snapshot at one workplace, so it cannot prove that poor sleep causes anxiety or the other way round. The authors suggest that social and psychological support for people with risk factors might help, and they call for larger, longer studies to learn more.

Key facts:

• The study included 130 employees at a single university campus who agreed to complete sleep and anxiety questionnaires.
• About 39% of the participants scored in the range that indicates poor sleep quality.
• People with lower sleep quality generally had higher anxiety scores, showing a positive link between worse sleep and more anxiety.
• Female participants reported higher anxiety than male participants in this group.
• Participants who said their income did not meet expenses had both poorer sleep and higher anxiety than those who felt their income was enough.
• People with a chronic disease, those who used regular medication, and those already known to have a sleep disorder had higher anxiety or worse sleep compared with others.
• Because this was a cross-sectional study from one workplace, the results are a snapshot and do not prove that one thing causes the other.
• The authors recommend larger and longer studies with different groups to better understand how sleep problems and anxiety are connected.

Abstract

Poor sleep quality and a high anxiety level are common in this country, as in the rest of the world. Socioeconomic interventions and psychosocial support to improve the status of individuals with risk factors, such as chronic disease, will reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality and overall psychosocial health. Further prospective studies should be conducted with different groups of participants and with larger samples to expand knowledge of the relationship between sleep quality and anxiety.

Topics

Circadian rhythm and melatonin Sleep and related disorders Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue

Categories

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Affect (linguistics) Anxiety Beck Anxiety Inventory Beck Depression Inventory Clinical psychology Communication Computer science Environmental health Insomnia Medicine Operating system Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Population Psychiatry Psychological intervention Psychology Psychosocial Sleep (system call) Sleep quality Socioeconomic status

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Anxiety or worry Poor sleep