Correlation analysis of hyperarousal, personality characteristics, coping strategy with the vulnerability to stress-related sleep disturbance

Abstract

Objective To explore the influence factors of hyperarousal, personality characteristics and coping strategies on the vulnerability to stress-related sleep disturbance. Methods A total of 345 sleep good healthy volunteers were recruited by purposive sampling technique. Every participant completed an extensive survey that included the general condition questionnaire, Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test (FIRST), Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale (PSAS), NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEOPI-R), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) and Heart Rate Variability(HRV). All participants were classified as High risk and Low risk by using the FIRST criterion. Results The high risk group was younger than the low risk group (27.91±8.22 vs 24.82±7.73, P<0.01), and had a higher percentage of females (34.7% vs 53.4%, P<0.05) . The high risk group showed significantly higher scores in PSAS total (30.11±6.22), pesleep cognitive arousal (17.73±4.51), presleep somatic arousal (12.78±3.23), neuroticism (3.13±0.51), emotion oriented (48.98±10.54), but lower score in extraversion (2.96±0.54), then those indicators of the low risk group (28.52±5.82, 16.32±4.32, 11.41±2.75; 3.11±0.56, 2.87±0.47, 46.23±11.21, 3.11±0.56, P<0.01 or 0.05). There were significant difference between the two group in LF/HF (1.51±0.19 vs 1.17±0.11, P<0.01), HF((311.21±72.32)ms2/Hz vs (490.43±91.74)ms2/Hz, P<0.01), LF((469.49±85.67)ms2/Hz vs (573.21±98.75)ms2/Hz, P<0.01) in HRV. Results of linear regression analysis showed that gender, and scores of PSAS total, cognitive arousal, presleep cognitive arousal, presleep somatic arousal, neuroticism, emotion oriented and LF/HF were significant correlation with FIRST score (P<0.01 or 0.05). Conclusion Presleep cognitive and somatic arousal, neurotic character may be the premorbid characteristics of stress-related sleep disturbance, and bad stress coping strategies are easy to promote the development of insomnia. Key words: Stress-related sleep disturbance; Vulnerability; Hyperarousal; Stress coping strategy