Socioeconomic Status and Sleep among Couples

ABSTRACT

Objective/Background: Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is generally associated with poor sleep but little is known about how different SES indices are associated with sleep duration and quality, or about these relations longitudinally or in cohabiting couples. The main objective was to examine longitudinal associations between multiple SES and sleep parameters in cohabiting adults.

Participants: Participants were cohabiting couples (N = 135) of women (M age = 37.2 years, SD = 5.93; 76% White/European American, 18% Black/African American) and men (M = 39.9 years, SD = 7.33; 78% White, 18% Black).

Methods: Men and women participated twice with a 1-year lag. At Time (T1), participants reported on multiple SES indices including their income, perceived economic well-being, education, employment status, and occupation. Sleep at T1 and T2 was assessed with self-reports and actigraphs (sleep duration from onset to wake time, %sleep from onset to wake, long wake episodes).

Results: Actor effects on actigraphy-assessed sleep parameters were evident for both men and women; low SES was associated with shorter duration and poor quality (%sleep, long wake episodes) sleep. These associations were most pronounced for income-to-needs ratio (men and women) and perceived economic well-being (women only). Partner effects were also evident such that men’s employment status was associated with women’s longer sleep duration and greater sleep quality (%sleep) whereas women’s employment predicted increased subjective sleep problems for men.

Conclusion: Findings illustrate the need to consider multiple SES and sleep indices, as well as the family context in studies addressing linkages between SES and sleep.

Acknowledgments

We would like to dedicate this paper to our colleague and friend, Margaret Keiley, whose contributions to our work will continue after her death. We wish to thank our research laboratory staff and students, particularly Bridget Wingo, for data collection and preparation, as well as participating families. This study was supported by Grant R01-HL093246 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded to Mona El-Sheikh. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ As all participants in the study were parents, the number of children in the household was considered as an additional covariate in analyses. All models were fit with this potential covariate and the results did not differ from the final models where the covariate was not included. To maintain parsimony, final results are presented without this covariate.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [HL093246].