Psychiatric Clinics of the University of Basel, CH-4012, Basel, Switzerland.
Stress Health. 2013 Aug;29(3):177-89. doi: 10.1002/smi.2438. Epub 2012 Jun 15.
The present study aimed to investigate whether stress experienced early in life is associated with actigraphic and subjective sleep measures in a sample of adult psychiatric outpatients. A total of 48 psychiatric outpatients completed self-report questionnaires assessing current depression, current anxiety symptoms and stress load during childhood (before the age of 13 years), adolescence (between the age of 13 and 18 years) and adulthood (between the age of 19 and current age). Sleep-related activity was measured using 24-h wrist actigraphy over a 7-day period at home, during which participants also kept a sleep diary. High stress load in childhood, but not in adolescence, was associated with shortened actigraphically assessed total sleep time, prolonged sleep onset latency, decreased sleep efficiency and an increased number of body movements in sleep, even after accounting for the effects of later occurring stress and psychopathological symptoms such as depression and anxiety scores. Unexpectedly, no significant associations between early-life stress load and subjective sleep measures were found. Results are consistent with findings from previous studies indicating an association between childhood adversities and higher levels of nocturnal activity. The findings suggest that high stress load during childhood might be a vulnerability factor for sleep continuity problems in adulthood.
本研究旨在调查个体在生命早期经历的压力是否与成人精神科门诊患者的活动记录仪和主观睡眠测量结果相关。共有 48 名精神科门诊患者完成了自我报告问卷，评估了当前的抑郁、当前的焦虑症状和童年（13 岁之前）、青春期（13 岁至 18 岁之间）和成年期（19 岁至当前年龄之间）期间的压力负荷。通过 7 天在家中佩戴 24 小时腕部活动记录仪来测量睡眠相关活动，在此期间，参与者还记录了睡眠日记。童年时期的高压力负荷，而不是青春期的高压力负荷，与活动记录仪评估的总睡眠时间缩短、睡眠潜伏期延长、睡眠效率降低以及睡眠中身体运动次数增加有关，即使考虑到后期发生的压力和精神病理学症状（如抑郁和焦虑评分）的影响也是如此。出乎意料的是，早期生活压力负荷与主观睡眠测量之间没有发现显著关联。研究结果与之前的研究结果一致，表明童年逆境与夜间活动水平升高之间存在关联。这些发现表明，儿童期的高压力负荷可能是成年期睡眠连续性问题的一个脆弱性因素。
