Preexisting Depression and Daytime Sleepiness in Women and Men

ABSTRACT

Background

Sleep problems can persist following the treatment of depression and remission of symptoms. The extent to which having a previous history of depression may be associated with current daytime sleepiness is largely unknown.

Methods

Data were obtained from the spring 2017 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) survey (92 institutions) which assessed self-reported health in U.S. college students (n = 41,670). Among the sample, 93.5% were 18–24 year of age, and 69.6% women. Logistic regression estimated the association between reported prior lifetime diagnosis of depression and daytime sleepiness from the past 7 days, while adjusting for depressive symptoms and antidepressant use from the past year. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models stratified by gender were performed.

Results

Among those who reported problems with sleepiness, 31.6% women and 19.4% men had a preexisting depression diagnosis. Individuals with preexisting depression were more likely than those without this diagnosis to report sleepiness problems (women: OR = 1.4, CI = 1.3–1.6, p < .001; men: OR = 1.2, CI = 1.0–1.4, p < .01). However, this association differed significantly by gender, with women with a preexisting depression diagnosis having a 13.0% greater likelihood of sleepiness compared to men.

Conclusions

Those with a preexisting depression diagnosis, and specifically women, may be at risk for daytime sleepiness even in the absence of current depressive mood-related symptoms. Given that many individuals are at risk for daytime sleepiness, mental health initiatives, including those on college campuses, should incorporate sleep hygiene within their programming.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the American College Health Association for providing and approving the use of this dataset: American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment, Spring 2017. Hanover, MD: American College Health Association [producer and distributor]; (2017-04-17 of distribution). The opinions, findings, and conclusions presented/reported in this article/presentation are those of the author(s) and are in no way meant to represent the corporate opinions, views, or policies of the American College Health Association (ACHA). The ACHA does not warrant nor assume any liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented in this article/presentation. Support for preparing this manuscript was provided through the Mary A. Tynan Faculty Fellowship and a NIMH K23 MH 107714-01 A1 award (to C.H.L.) and a Willamette University Atkinson Research Award (to C.S.). No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data analyzed in this study were a re-analysis of existing data, which are available at locations cited in the reference section.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health; Willamette University Atkinson Research Award; Mary A. Tynan Faculty Fellowship.