Sleep Disruption Due to Stress in Women Veterans: A Comparison between Caregivers and Noncaregivers

ABSTRACT

Objective/Background: Sleep problems are common in women and caregiving for an adult is a common role among women. However, the effects of caregiving on sleep and related daytime impairment are poorly understood among women veterans. This study compared stress-related sleep disturbances, insomnia symptoms, and sleep-related daytime impairment between women veterans who were caregivers and those who did not have a caregiving role.

Participants: Of 12,225 women veterans who received care in one Veterans Administration Healthcare System, 1,457 completed data on a postal survey (mean age = 51.7 ± 15.9 years). Two hundred forty three (17%) respondents (mean age 53.8 ± 12.7 years) were caregivers for an adult, predominantly for a parent, providing transportation.

Methods: The survey included items that addressed insomnia symptoms, total sleep time, sleep-related daytime impairments, caregiving characteristics, self-rated health, pain, stress, body mass index, and demographic information.

Results: In adjusted analyses, caregiver status did not directly predict sleep complaints alone. However, in multiple regression analyses, being a caregiver (odds ratio 1.7, p = .001) significantly predicted stress-related sleep disturbance, even after adjusting for age, pain, self-rated health, and other characteristics. Furthermore, being a caregiver (β = 3.9, p = .031) significantly predicted more symptoms of sleep-related daytime impairment after adjusting for age, pain, self-rated health, and other factors.

Conclusions: Compared to noncaregivers, women veterans who were caregivers for an adult were more likely to report stress causing poor sleep, and more daytime impairment due to poor sleep. These findings suggest the need to target stress and other factors when addressing sleep disturbance among women veterans who are caregivers.

Acknowledgments

Dr. Song had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Work was presented in part at the American Professional Sleep Societies Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, June 2018.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [JM] on request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D IIR 13-058-2 PI: Martin). Additional support includes VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC); Office of Academic Affiliations, Department of Veterans Affairs; National Institute on Aging (Song K23AG055668, Fung K23AG045937), and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (Martin K24HL143055) of the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, or the U.S. Government.