IMPACT OF STRESS ON SLEEP PATTERN 1

IMPACT OF STRESS ON SLEEP PATTERN 15

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged, that proper sleep is necessary for all individuals. However, many people struggle to achieve good sleep due to many reasons. One of the main reasons is stress. This study investigates the impact of stress on the sleep patterns of people in the U.S. The study performed a descriptive analysis of primary data. There were 48 participants of all different ages from 18-60 years old who completed an anonymous online survey regarding stress, sleep, and health regarding and disease-related features. The data of 48 individuals were studied using excel. The impact of stress on sleep patterns was discovered (p<0.001). Stress had a significant negative impact on sleep patterns. Few of the other researches have also been conducted to demonstrate the effect of stress on sleep however; this study will offer a novel contribution to this arena of research. To enhance the sleep quality of individuals in the USA it is highly essential to develop policies to diminish stress and improve sleep quality.

Introduction

Sleep is one of the most vital human needs-it is necessary to have a sufficient amount of sleep for a healthy life (Ohayon et al., 2017). The quality of sleep varies in every individual and is affected by various factors such as genetic behavior, medical, and environment. According to a study, to attain the full benefits of sleep, an individual must spend almost a third of their life sleeping (World Health Organization, 2004; Watson et al., 2015). The Present routine and various environmental aspects are mainly accountable for a sleeping disorder, with stress being one of the most significant (Han et al., 2012).

Stress is a complicated condition with emotional and biologically complex characteristics. The excess amount of stress in an individual can lead to long- or short-term disability and stimulates the defense mechanism of the central nervous system. With an increase in the level of stress in an individual’s life, the sleep pattern is changing drastically resulting in sleep disorder. Differential resistance to stress havoc in different psychoneurobiologic processes models susceptibility to multiple psychiatric and medical conditions. In simpler words, stress-related illnesses also tend to be overwhelmed by pathogenic stress in conjunction with fragile mechanisms. The fundamental processes for the vulnerable system thus need to be identified and defined (Kalmbach et al., 2018).

Studies have associated stress with physical as well as psychosomatic symptoms, including changes in sleep patterns. In an investigation among Korean adolescents, an increase in suicidal ideation was discovered due to stress, contributing to one of the vital reasons for death in individuals (Kim, 2018). Besides, while sleeping disruption is directly or adversely related to mental wellbeing, sleep disturbance may intensify the effects on depression symptoms of other major risk factors, limiting the ability of the body to respond to these stressors. Using a representative survey of adults from American Changing Lives in the United States, restless sleep is recognized to be a possible regulator of the connection between anxiety and depressive symptoms, an (ACL) investigation. Greater awareness of these correlations will lead to improved information about sleep mechanisms in connection with sleep disruption, and about strategies that can be ideally tailored to depressed moods or stress. External stressors, including traumatic living activities, are generally recognized as primary risk factors that can forecast the emergence of depressing signs during adult existence. Traumatic event experiences bring distinct shifts in the lives of people that can conflict with the capacity to adjust (e.g., being jobless or death of the loved one), can result in overpowering people’s emotional and physical capabilities, and contribute to mental distress. The study investigated a major disturbance in the sleep of an individual concerning a life event, indicating that when an individual experience higher than an average amount of life conditions and sleep for more duration uncomfortably than typical, they have more risk of depression indications rather than the entities who have reached a higher level of stress but they sleep well (Leggett et al., 2016).

Another study showed that sleep-deprived youths are more expected to be stressed compared to restful adolescents; they considered their problems as more dangerous (Talbot et al., 2010). Surprisingly, another research suggested, the restriction caused in sleep due to disagreements in two individuals, it was discovered that during the discussion of disagreements sleep constraint was attributed negatively relative to regular sleep (McMakin et al., 2016). Moreover, it was found the association between family stress and negative results moderated sleep quality or the percentage of real sleep time spent in the room moderated the association among family tension and insignificant impacts resulting in days of low sleep performance, the positive connection among the stress and demands of the family and evidence of negative impact is greater. Compared with those of Latino, Asian and other origins, this moderation of sleep performance was exceptionally higher in European individuals (Chiang et al., 2017).

Although stress can be caused by various factors, in this paper, we have genialized the concept of stress to examine its effect on sleep patterns. However, several factors like consumption of alcohol, proper night rest, an illness like shortness of breath have been considered to examine the stress and sleep patterns of an individual. In this paper, we discuss the concept of stress and its impact on sleep patterns in the U.S. population.

Research Purpose

The main aim of this research is to inspect the effect of stress on sleep patterns on the population of the U.S. of people of age between 18to 60. In figure 1 conceptual model of the same is provided below.

Stress

Sleep Pattern

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

A research’s Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework of this study is based on the direct effect model (Han, 2012), it was derived from the hypothesis that stress in adults has a direct negative impact on sleep patterns. The hypothesis of this study is:

Hypothesis: Stress in adults affects their sleep Pattern.

Method

Participant involvement and Sampling policies

The target population for the survey of this particular study was individuals of various ages in the U.S. Data were collected in the year 2021 from January to February. The participants were from the age of 18 to 60 years old. We did a survey, where we initially received 31 responses and later received 16 responses, which makes our total sample size 48. The survey was based on 11 questions, among which a few of the questions were related to gender, age, and nine other questions related to stress and sleep effects due to alcohol usage, perceived anxiety, and restlessness.

Material

· Their gender: Female (1), Male (2), Gender Fluid (no numeral code because we did not receive any), Prefer Not to Say (3).

· Their age: It was an open-ended question.

· One interval scale: 0-1 (1), 2-3 (2), 4-5 (3), 6-7 (4).

· Second interval scale- Never (1), Very Rarely (2), Rarely (3), Occasionally (4), Frequently (5), Very Frequently (6).

Procedure

In this study, the analysis has been performed by using Excel analysis. Where if the value of P < 0.05, it was considered significant. The Data in this study was studied in the following manner. Firstly, the data was divided into three sections as per the age of the participant. Secondly, the average is taken out based on factors like how many days they consume alcohol, the days you felt tired even after night rest, overeaten, illness-shortness of breath, slept well (more than 6 hours) and has been analyzed. Thirdly, data was analyzed on the situations that caused stress like – How often have you felt while approaching the situation, how often have you felt easily irritated, how often you find yourself clenching your jaw/teeth, how often have used nicotine, number of times you went into the room and forgot the reason. Combining all the data of the survey the impact of stress on sleep pattern was examined.

3 Results

3.1. Sleep Patterns and Stress

On a given scale, the mean score for stress and sleep pattern were respectively 2.09 and 2.71 (Table 1).

Table 1: Mean of Stress and Sleep Patterns

Variables	Mean	SE	Range
Stress	2.09	0.005	1–48
Sleep Pattern	2.71	0.004	1–48

SE = Standard Error

3.2 Factors affecting stress and causing changes in sleep pattern

Several Factors were analyzed as the reason for disturbance in sleep patterns in different age groups (Graph1). Stress exhibited a significant negative connection with sleep patterns. Where the value of p < 0.001 and the value of ß = -0.30 sleep Pattern ß = 0.10, p < 0.001 and stress ß = -0.30, p < 0.001 (Table 2).

Figure 2:Factors and Age Affect

Table 2: Relation of Stress and Sleep Patterns

Variables		SE	T(P)	R2
Independent	Dependent
Stress	Sleep Pattern	0.004	(<0.001)	0.125

SE = Standard Error

Discussion

In this analysis, it was found that the adults above 45 years old faced a more disturbing pattern in their sleep compared to the younger generation. Moreover, it was discovered that individuals between ages of 18 to 25 could still maintain sleep patterns yet, with the increase in age and social situations the sleep patterns are being affected drastically and hence, an increase in the consumption of alcohol in adults between 25-35 and 45. Overtime at work, societal stress, work stress is some of the reasons assumed for an increase in consumption of alcohol by adults. Hence, this proves our hypothesis that stress directly impacts sleep patterns negatively. Our work supports previous findings that stress impacts negatively on sleep (Hamilton et al., 2008). Another illuminating research has proposed a pattern of disturbing stress overnight by a positive result. During the times when stress was more, the positive outcome came back to the levels noticed in the days when stress was low. When sleep was for a short period, the individual’s positive effect was much lower during the day. Our results were similar to Chinese research, which suggested stress was significantly connected with low quality of sleep (Liu et al., 2016). Several other studies following our result were (Barros et al., 2019; Machado et al., 2018). Similarly, another study proved that in younger individual’s quality of sleep is poor, and much lengthier sleep potential is highly usual, while incomplete sleep is more connected with adults of more age (Gadie et al., 2017). Although some of the studies did not find the effect of alcohol on sleep patterns positive connection was investigated by a study supporting our findings (Goldman-Mellor et al., 2014).

The findings of the study indicated that the sleep satisfaction of high-stress teenagers needs to be identified and strategies need to be developed to increase sleep satisfaction. We also find that encouraging complete sleep could enhance an individual’s self-evaluation fitness. But an interventional method (Clementi, 2018) and a combined public health agenda can be introduced so that young people understand that depression and sleep are not isolated from achievement, hence enabling them to diminish stress and improve sleep patterns. Random policies and constant measurements containing objective and consistent sleep, educational functioning, and status of health are some of the necessary measures that need to be implemented (Lee, 2020). As to policy, the guidelines in Canada can establish a decent example of public health guidelines that prioritize healthy sleep (Chaput, 2019). Canada thus released the first detailed 24-hour activity guidance for individuals especially students in 2016. They concentrated on the entire 24-hour cycle and not on the night time, incorporating sleep wellness with other lifestyles, such as enough exercise and diet.

Considering the implication of this study few recommendations are offered to the population of the U.S to promote healthy sleep patterns. The American Academy of Pediatrics promotes strategies, which is to postpone an individual’s timing of attendance in institutes since it helps in increasing the sleeping time weekly, an increase in school attendance and a reduction in lateness enhance the performance of students academically (Tarokh et al., 2016). Few simple and low-cost effective activities can be implemented by individuals in their everyday life such as regular exercise, reducing coffee or alcohol intake, avoiding longer naps during the days, including warm showers before sleeping (Haghayegh et al., 2019). Some other possibilities can be activities like yoga, mindfulness, and psychotherapy to relax the mind and avoid stress (Kumar et al., 2019).

Several limitations and strengths of this study are the following. Firstly, the data of the study is very limited therefore; the outcome cannot be considered for all the population of the U.S. and can be biased as well. Secondly, there are several proxies available for seep as well as stress which need to be considered, this might have undervalued the occurrence of degrading quality of sleep, in comparison with former surveys (e.g., the PSQI). Additionally, we did not ask the individuals if they have been identified with sleep sicknesses, which can act as a supplementary perplexing variable.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of more population-based studies in the U.S. our findings present a significant contribution for U.S health experts and researchers. We think that these results emphasize the significance of adolescent sleep and also the effect of stress and consequences for how stress can affect the sleep pattern in everyday life during times of vital growth.

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18-25 How many days have you slept more than 6 hours uninterrupted? How many days have you been in a social situation which caused shortness of breath How many days have you over eaten/under eaten? How many days have you felt tired after a nights rest How many times a week do you consume alcohol? 5 5 2 2 1 25-35 How many days have you slept more than 6 hours uninterrupted? How many days have you been in a social situation which caused shortness of breath How many days have you over eaten/under eaten? How many days have you felt tired after a nights rest How many times a week do you consume alcohol? 3 4 3 3 3 35-45 How many days have you slept more than 6 hours uninterrupted? How many days have you been in a social situation which caused shortness of breath How many days have you over eaten/under eaten? How many days have you felt tired after a nights rest How many times a week do you consume alcohol? 2 2 4 4 2 > 45 How many days have you slept more than 6 hours uninterrupted? How many days have you been in a social situation which caused shortness of breath How many days have you over eaten/under eaten? How many days have you felt tired after a nights rest How many times a week do you consume alcohol? 3 1 3 6 3

Days