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Hey Mr. Sandman: dyadic effects of anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep among married couples

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Abstract

This study examined associations among anxiety, depressive symptoms, and sleep duration in a sample of middle-aged couples using the actor–partner interaction model with dyadic data. Self-report measures were completed independently by both partners as part of the health histories obtained during their annual preventive medical examinations in 2011 and 2012. Results showed that husbands’ anxiety and depressive symptoms had a stronger effect on their wives’ anxiety and depression than the other way around, but this was not moderated by one’s own sleep duration. For both wives and husbands, higher levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety predicted shorter sleep duration for their partner 1 year later, although the effect of husbands’ mental health on their wives’ was again stronger. The findings suggest that sleep problems might better be treated as a couple-level phenomenon than an individual one, particularly for women.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Cheryl Carmichael, Kristi Gamarel, and Daniel Heitjan for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript. The authors serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of EHE International. EHE International did not play a role in the design of the study, data analyses or interpretation, or in the writing of the manuscript. EHE International did verify that the text in the Methods section describing the company and its programs was factually correct.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Tracey A. Revenson

  2. The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Tracey A. Revenson & Amanda M. Marín-Chollom

  3. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Andrew G. Rundle

  4. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Juan Wisnivesky

  5. Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Alfred I. Neugut

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  1. Tracey A. Revenson
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  2. Amanda M. Marín-Chollom
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Correspondence to Tracey A. Revenson.

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Tracey A. Revenson, Amanda M. Marín-Chollom, Andrew G. Rundle, Juan Wisnivesky and Alfred I. Neugut does not have any financial interest related to this research.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

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Revenson, T.A., Marín-Chollom, A.M., Rundle, A.G. et al. Hey Mr. Sandman: dyadic effects of anxiety, depressive symptoms and sleep among married couples. J Behav Med 39, 225–232 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9693-7

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