Sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment in psychotic disorders are related to both positive and negative symptoms

Abstract

A large literature indicates that sleep disturbances are associated with paranoia and other positive symptoms in psychotic disorders. However, few studies have examined the potential association between sleep disturbances and negative symptoms and the results have been inconsistent. The current study examined the hypothesis that sleep problems would be associated with more severe positive and negative symptoms in a transdiagnostic sample of individuals with psychosis (N = 90). Further, we examined whether sleep would be related to negative symptoms above and beyond the contribution of paranoia, other positive symptoms, and depression-anxiety. Results replicated prior research in finding that both sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment were related to more severe paranoia, other positive symptoms and depression-anxiety. Consistent with our hypothesis, more severe sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment were related to greater negative symptoms; this was evident across both motivation-pleasure deficits and diminished expression. Sleep variables remained significantly related to motivation-pleasure deficits even after controlling for other non-negative symptoms. These results indicate the broad symptom impact of sleep disturbances and may suggest a novel treatment target to improve negative symptoms.