Associations between sleep quality and anxiety and depression symptoms in a sample of young adult twins and siblings

Gregory, Alice, Buysse, Daniel, Willis, Thomas, Rijsdijk, Frühling, Maughan, Barbara, Rowe, Richard, Cartwright, Sally, Barclay, Nicola and Eley, Thalia (2011) Associations between sleep quality and anxiety and depression symptoms in a sample of young adult twins and siblings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 71 (4). pp. 250-255. ISSN 0022-3999

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Abstract

Objectives
Little is known about the aetiology of the links between sleep disturbance and anxiety and depression symptoms. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic and environmental influences on these associations.

Methods
Questionnaires were completed by 1556 young adults from twin and sibling pairs (61.5% female).

Results
Sleep disturbance was moderately correlated with symptoms of anxiety (r=.39) and depression (r=.50). There was substantial overlap between genes influencing sleep disturbance and those influencing symptoms of anxiety (rA=.58) and depression (rA=.68). Overall, the associations between sleep and symptoms of both anxiety and depression were mainly due to genes (explaining 74% and 58% of the covariances respectively), with the remainder due to nonshared environmental factors.

Conclusions
Moderate phenotypic and genetic correlations between the phenotypes support the view that sleep disturbance is related to the presence of various psychiatric difficulties, but also warrants independent consideration and treatment.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Anxiety, depression, genetics, sleep, twins
Subjects:	C800 Psychology
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Ellen Cole
Date Deposited:	16 Dec 2011 12:17
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 16:29
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4233

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