130. Subjective social status reduces the association between poor sleep and elevated inflammation in female college students

Abstract

Negative health consequences of poor sleep and low subjective social status are a consistent finding in various age groups, including children and older adults. In young adults, college marks a special time in this regard as it is linked to significant changes in sleep patterns and social status. The current study aimed at investigating whether such changes in sleep patterns during college are also linked to health outcomes and if so, whether this association is gender-dependent and/or moderated by social status. To answer these questions, sleep efficiency was assessed in 45 students (31 females, 19.4 ± 1.36 yrs) over the course of a week using actigraphy. Inflammatory status was determined by plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels. Controlling for BMI and age, female students showed higher IL-6 levels ( F = 4.68, p = .036) and higher sleep efficiency ( F = 6.66, p = .014) than male students. However, specifically female students with low sleep efficiency showed elevated IL-6 levels when compared to both female students with high sleep efficiency and male students (beta = 0.58, p = .029). Including subjective social status reduced this effect (beta = 2.00, p = .053). In summary, we found a higher susceptibility to negative health effects of poor sleep in female students compared to male students – an effect buffered by social status. These findings emphasize the importance of taking sleep behavior into account when investigating the mechanisms underlying gender differences in prevalence rates of inflammatory diseases, specifically during early adulthood.