Sleep Deficiency by Caregiving Status: Findings From Nationally Representative Data.
Soojung Ahn, Misook L Chung, Jeongok G Logan
PMID 37902143WHAT IT FOUND
Family caregivers were more likely than non-caregivers to report short sleep, with or without poor quality.
Among caregivers, 20 or more hours per week and dementia caregiving were linked to poor quality with normal sleep length. This cannot show caregiving caused poor sleep.
Key findings
01In the 3870 adults analysed, 487 caregivers were 1.4 times more likely than non-caregivers to report short sleep duration with poor sleep quality, and 1.6 times more likely to report short sleep duration with good sleep quality, than to report normal sleep duration and good sleep quality.
02Among caregivers, providing care for 20 or more hours per week was associated with 2.8 times higher likelihood of reporting normal sleep duration with poor sleep quality, rather than normal sleep duration and good sleep quality.
03Among caregivers, caring for someone with dementia was associated with 2.8 times higher likelihood of reporting normal sleep duration with poor sleep quality, rather than normal sleep duration and good sleep quality; spousal caregiving was not associated with sleep deficiency.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The survey was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that caregiving caused sleep deficiency. Sleep duration and quality were self-reported with single questions, so they may not match objective sleep measures. The survey had a low response rate, which may have introduced selection bias. Some caregiving characteristics, such as the care-recipient's dependence and the caregiving context, were not collected. The analysis excluded people who provided care as part of a job and people with extreme reported sleep durations, so it applies only to unpaid caregivers whose reported sleep durations were within the range analysed. Missing values in covariates were handled by listwise deletion.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that caregiving causes sleep deficiency. The study is cross-sectional and self-reported, so it shows association only. It also did not test any intervention to improve caregiver sleep.