• Poor sleep and stress exacerbate each ot

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Thu Feb 3 21:30:44 2022
    Poor sleep and stress exacerbate each other among nurses who work night
    shift, study finds

    Date:
    February 3, 2022
    Source:
    Oregon State University
    Summary:
    Nurses who work the night shift report more sleep disturbances and
    are more likely to suffer from psychological and physical health
    symptoms including PTSD, insomnia and inflammation, a recent
    study found.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Nurses who work the night shift report more sleep disturbances and are
    more likely to suffer from psychological and physical health symptoms
    including PTSD, insomnia and inflammation, a recent study from an Oregon
    State University researcher found.


    ========================================================================== Though effective interventions exist for many different sleep disorders, including insomnia and nightmares, those techniques are often not widely
    known or offered to patients such as nurses who could benefit from them.

    "I think the main finding here is that sleep is important and should not
    be overlooked when we're considering the picture of someone's health, especially in fields that require a lot of attention and care and
    emotional involvement, like nursing," said Jessee Dietch, co-author on
    the study and an assistant professor of psychology in OSU's College of
    Liberal Arts.

    The study, conducted in 2018, involved 392 nurses who reported their
    sleep experiences in daily sleep diaries for 14 days, noting duration,
    quality, efficiency -- how long they were in bed versus how long they
    were asleep -- and nightmare severity.

    Researchers also took blood samples at the halfway point to test for
    general immune response and inflammation.

    Based on the results, the researchers sorted participants into three sleep classes: 80.4% reported good overall sleep; 11.2% had poor overall sleep;
    and 8.4% were in the "nightmares only" group, with mostly average sleep
    but above average levels of nightmare severity.



    ==========================================================================
    They found that nurses in the poor overall sleep class were more likely
    to be recent night-shift workers than those in the good overall sleep
    class. They reported worse sleep quality along with more PTSD, more
    depression, more insomnia and more severe anxiety and perceived stress
    than those in the good overall sleep group.

    Nurses in this group were also more likely to be Black. While Black
    nurses accounted for only 7% of the total sample, they comprised 23% of
    those in the poor overall sleep class. This is consistent with findings
    from other studies, Dietch said, and is linked to systemic racism.

    "Experiences of discrimination are related to poor sleep health," she
    said, noting that socioeconomic factors and caregiving responsibilities
    among racial and ethnic minorities, outside of their working hours,
    can also play a part.

    While the study took place before COVID-19, the pandemic has only
    increased nurses' workload and heightened the emotional toll, and it
    is very likely that sleep problems have become even more exacerbated,
    Dietch said.

    "The pandemic has really highlighted the importance of caring for our caregivers, and I think sleep is an important place to look for doing
    that," she said.



    ========================================================================== Historically, Dietch said, the consensus was that sleep problems were a
    symptom of an underlying mental or physical health problem and treating
    that other health problem would solve the sleep disorder.

    "But in the last 20 years or so this has been thoroughly debunked,
    at least in the sleep world," she said. "We know in a lot of cases,
    poor sleep health precedes mental and physical health problems, and even
    when that's not the case, if we treat the co-occurring health problem,
    the sleep health problems often don't go away." Dietch hopes research
    like hers will help demonstrate the need for more health care providers
    trained in sleep disorders and treatments, such as cognitive behavioral
    therapy for insomnia.

    "People don't know these treatments are out there and that they work
    really well, often better and faster than other mental health treatments,
    and we don't have enough providers," she said. "It's hard to get the
    word out." Future research will look at how to mitigate the negative
    sleep effects for shift-working nurses, including individual-level interventions and stabilizing schedules at the systemic level, she said.

    special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
    dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Oregon_State_University. Original
    written by Molly Rosbach. Note: Content may be edited for style and
    length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Danica C. Slavish, Ateka A. Contractor, Jessica R. Dietch,
    Brett Messman,
    Heather R. Lucke, Madasen Briggs, James Thornton, Camilo Ruggero,
    Kimberly Kelly, Marian Kohut, Daniel J. Taylor. Characterizing
    Patterns of Nurses' Daily Sleep Health: a Latent Profile
    Analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2022;
    DOI: 10.1007/s12529-021-10048-4 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220203161120.htm

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