The role of psychological morbidity on sleep quality and lifestyle in adolescents

Abstract

Introduction To analyze the mediating role of psychological morbidity in the relationship between daytime sleepiness and sleep quality as well as between daytime sleepiness and lifestyle. Materials and Methods A sample of 272 adolescents, from both genders, between 12 and 18 years old, participated in the study. The instruments used were: Modified Excessive Sleepiness Scale to Adolescent (Billings & Berg-Cross, 2010), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse et al, 1989), Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (Zigmond & Snaith, 1983) and Lifestyle Questionnaire (Pereira & Pedras, 2008). All instruments were adapted to the Portuguese population. Results Mediation analysis was tested through bootstrapping. Psychological Morbidity (anxiety and depression) mediated the relationship between excessive daytime sleepiness and sleep quality (p = .005), and between excessive daytime sleepiness and lifestyle, in adolescents (p = .01). Conclusion The results emphasize the importance of psychological morbidity on sleep quality and lifestyle, in adolescents. Therefore, interventions to increase sleep quality should target daytime sleepiness in adolescents and focus on psychological morbidity, as early as possible. Acknowledgements The work was partially carried out under the Erasmus Mundus Student Mobility grant 2009-1670/001-001-ECW.