News Release

Poor sleep quality linked to reduced resilience among veterans

Study is first to examine relationship between resilience and self-reported sleep quality among veterans and active duty service members of Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

DARIEN, Ill. -- A new study suggests that poor sleep quality is associated with reduced resilience among veterans and returning military personnel.

Results show that 63 percent of participants endorsed poor sleep quality, which was negatively associated with resilience. Longer sleep onset, lower sleep efficiency, shorter sleep duration, worse sleep quality, and greater daytime disturbance were each associated with lower resilience. Findings suggest that appraisal of sleep quality may contribute to resilience scores more than self-reported sleep efficiency.

'To our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relationship between resilience, defined here as positive stress-coping ability, and self-reported sleep quality among veterans and active duty service-members of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts,' said lead author Jaime M. Hughes, MPH, MSW, research affiliate at Durham VA Medical Center and doctoral student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented June 8 in Seattle, Wash., at SLEEP 2015, the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

The study group comprised 2,597 Iraq and Afghanistan military veterans. Eighty percent were male with a mean age of 37 years. An in-person assessment captured resilience (Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Davidson Trauma Scale), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), and combat exposure (Combat Exposure Scale).

'These results support the need for additional research to better understand resilience as it relates sleep behaviors and sleep quality. Such findings may contribute to a better understanding of how chronic sleep disturbance impacts an individual's adaptive and functional capacities upon reintegration, and can help to inform the development of novel sleep interventions,' said Hughes.

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The research was performed in conjunction with lead investigator Christi Ulmer, Ph.D., CBSM, clinical research psychologist at the Durham VA Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, and an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center. The data was collected as part of the VA Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) Study of Post-Deployment Mental Health (VA Mental Health Services).

Abstract title: The relationship between sleep quality and resilience in veterans and active duty personnel of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts Abstract ID: 0241 Presentation Date: Monday, June 8, 2015 Presentation Type: Poster #98 Presentation Time: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The SLEEP 2015 abstract supplement is available at http://journalsleep.org/ViewAbstractSupplement.aspx.

Contact:

Lynn Celmer
lcelmer@aasmnet.org
630-737-9700, ext. 9364

About SLEEP 2015 More than 5,000 sleep medicine physicians and sleep scientists will gather at SLEEP 2015, the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), which will be held June 6-10 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. The scientific program will include about 1,200 research abstract presentations. The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society (http://www.sleepmeeting.org).

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Established in 1975, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) improves sleep health and promotes high quality patient centered care through advocacy, education, strategic research, and practice standards. With nearly 10,000 members, the AASM is the largest professional membership society for physicians, scientists and other health care providers dedicated to sleep medicine (http://www.aasmnet.org).


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