How lonely you are may impact how well you sleep, research shows

	Tweet

Loneliness is not only heartbreaking, it breaks up a normal night’s sleep, a new study shows. Researchers say compromised sleep may be one pathway by which feelings of loneliness adversely affect our health.

“It’s not just a product of very lonely individuals having poor sleep. The relationship between loneliness and restless sleep appears to operate across the range of perceived connectedness,” said lead author Lianne Kurina, PhD, of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago.

Kurina and her co-authors compared the degree of loneliness reported by a close-knit population of 95 adults in rural South Dakota with measurements of their sleep cycles. None of the individuals were socially isolated, yet their perceptions of loneliness varied. Higher loneliness scores were linked to significantly higher levels of fragmented sleep. The total amount of sleep and the degree of daytime sleepiness were not impacted.

"Loneliness has been associated with adverse effects on health,” Kurina said. “We wanted to explore one potential pathway for this, the theory that sleep – a key behavior to staying healthy – could be compromised by feelings of loneliness. What we found was that loneliness does not appear to change the total amount of sleep in individuals, but awakens them more times during the night.”

These findings, appearing in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Sleep, were similar to a 2002 study published by the American Psychological Society that compared the loneliness reported by college students with their measured quality of sleep. The lonelier the students felt, the more their sleep was broken-up during the night.

The similarities among the studies help point out that loneliness and social isolation are two distinct concepts, Kurina said. Loneliness reflects perceived social isolation or feelings of being an outcast, the often-painful discrepancy between a person’s desired and actual social relationships.

“Whether you’re a young student at a major university or an older adult living in a rural community, we may all be dependent on feeling secure in our social environment in order to sleep soundly,” Kurina said. “The results from these studies could further our understanding of how social and psychological factors ‘get under the skin’ and affect health.”

###

For a copy of the study, “Loneliness Is Associated with Sleep Fragmentation in a Communal Society,” or to arrange an interview with an AASM spokesperson, please contact PR Coordinator Doug Dusik at 630-737-9700, ext. 9345, or ddusik@aasmnet.org.

The monthly, peer-reviewed, scientific journal Sleep is published online by the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The AASM is a professional membership society that is the leader in setting standards and promoting excellence in sleep medicine health care, education and research.

###

Doug Dusik
ddusik@aasmnet.org
630-737-9700
American Academy of Sleep Medicine

RELATED STORIES:
Longer sleep times may counteract genetic factors related to weight gain   Lack of Sleep May Raise Risk of Diabetes   Study: Insomnia takes toll on tinnitus patients   Graying America gets wired to cut healthcare costs   Lack of Sleep May Raise Risk of Diabetes   When Snoring Is More Than a Bad Soundtrack   Less Than Six Hours Sleep Can Contribute To Early Death, Says Study   Sleep linked to heart woes   Why Do We Sleep?   Sleeping Pill Death Toll May Top 500,000   Southerners the sleepiest in the US, study says   Trouble sleeping? It may affect your memory later on

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]