Quality of sleep in patients with schizophrenia is associated with quality of life and coping

Abstract

Abstract Background While sleep disturbance is widespread in schizophrenia it is less clear whether sleep disturbance is uniquely related to impaired coping and perceived quality of life. Methods We simultaneously assessed sleep quality, symptoms, and coping in 29 persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in a post acute phase of illness. Assessment instruments included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale; the Heinrichs Quality of Life Scale; and the Ways of Coping Scale. Multiple regressions were performed predicting quality of life and coping from sleep quality controlling for age and symptom severity. On a subset of seven subjects non-dominant wrist actigraphy was used as an objective check of their self-reported poor sleep. Results Analyses revealed that poor sleep quality predicted low quality of life (r = -0.493; p = .022) and reduced preference for employing positive reappraisal when facing a stressor (r = -0.0594; p = 0.0012). Actigraphy confirmed poor sleep quality in a subset of subjects. They had shorter sleep duration (p Conclusion The results are consistent with the hypotheses that poor sleep may play a unique role in sustaining poor quality of life and impaired coping in patients with schizophrenia. These associations may hold for community controls as well.