Curtis Ashley F, Costa Amy N, Musich Madison, Schmiedeler Anthony, Jagannathan Sadhika, Connell Maggie, Atkinson Angela, Miller Mary Beth, McCrae Christina S
College of Nursing, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
Behav Sleep Med. 2024 Jan 2;22(1):14-27. doi: 10.1080/15402002.2023.2177293. Epub 2023 Feb 21.
Despite known sex differences in the prevalence of sleep disturbance and cognitive impairment, research investigating sex differences in sleep/cognition associations is limited. We examined sex as a moderator of associations between self-reported sleep and objective cognition in middle-aged/older adults.
Adults aged 50+ (32 men/31 women, = 63.6 ± 7.7) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and cognitive tasks: Stroop (processing speed, inhibition), Posner (spatial attentional orienting) and Sternberg (working memory). Multiple regressions examined whether PSQI metrics (global score, sleep quality ratings, sleep duration, sleep efficiency) were independently or interactively (with sex) associated with cognition, controlling for age and education.
Sex interacted with sleep quality ratings in its association with endogenous spatial attentional orienting (∆R = .10, .01). Worse ratings of sleep quality were associated with worse orienting in women ( 22.73, 9.53, .02), not men ( = .24). Sex interacted with sleep efficiency in its associations with processing speed (∆R = .06, .04). Lower sleep efficiency was associated with slower Stroop control trial performance in women (5.91, 7.57, .04), not men ( = .48).
Preliminary findings suggest middle-aged/older women are more vulnerable to associations between poor sleep quality and low sleep efficiency on spatial attentional orienting and processing speed, respectively. Future studies in larger samples investigating sex-specific prospective sleep and cognition associations are warranted.
尽管已知睡眠障碍和认知障碍的患病率存在性别差异，但研究睡眠/认知关联中性别差异的研究有限。我们研究了性别作为中年/老年人自我报告睡眠与客观认知之间关联的调节因素。
50岁及以上的成年人（32名男性/31名女性，平均年龄 = 63.6 ± 7.7岁）完成了匹兹堡睡眠质量指数（PSQI）和认知任务：斯特鲁普任务（处理速度、抑制）、波斯纳任务（空间注意定向）和斯特恩伯格任务（工作记忆）。多元回归分析了PSQI指标（总体评分、睡眠质量评分、睡眠时间、睡眠效率）是否与认知独立相关或交互相关（与性别），同时控制年龄和教育程度。
性别在其与内源性空间注意定向的关联中与睡眠质量评分存在交互作用（ΔR = 0.10，P = 0.01）。睡眠质量评分较差与女性的定向较差相关（β = -2.73，SE = 0.95，P = 0.02），而男性则不然（β = 0.24）。性别在其与处理速度的关联中与睡眠效率存在交互作用（ΔR = 0.06，P = 0.04）。睡眠效率较低与女性在斯特鲁普控制试验中的表现较慢相关（β = -5.91，SE = 7.57，P = 0.04），而男性则不然（β = 0.48）。
初步研究结果表明，中年/老年女性在空间注意定向和处理速度方面，分别更容易受到睡眠质量差和睡眠效率低之间关联的影响。有必要对更大样本进行未来研究，以调查性别特异性的前瞻性睡眠与认知关联。
