The impact of anxiety on sleep quality

Background: A significant relationship between psychiatric disorders principally depression and anxiety and insomnia is well-known in general population. Ahigh percent of insomnia sufferers report anxiety symptoms. Anxiety is also frequently seen in medical patients whom complaints of sleep problems are often prominent. Method: 250 outpatients with various medical complaints participated in the study and completed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and Beck Anxiety inventory (BAI). Results: The patients reported moderate anxiety on BAI. Significant correlations were found between anxiety and four components of sleep; sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency. Conclusion: The correlation of sleep complaints with anxiety symptoms indicated a high interrelatedness between anxiety and sleep complaints. Insomnia is a disorder of hyperarousal. Nonetheless inqury into mechanisms of arousal regulation could further explain the anxiety and sleep disorders as well.