Women With Stable Marriages And New Partners Enjoy Better Sleep

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Article Date: 14 Jun 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Women who have stable marriages or who have recently gained a partner reported better sleep than women who are unmarried or who have lost a partner, according to a new University of Pittsburgh study.

To assess the effects of marital stability and relationship changes on sleep, the study's lead author, Wendy Troxel, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Pitt's School of Medicine, examined data from 360 middle-aged Chinese, Caucasian and African-American women over eight years.

The researchers found that women who were in a stable marriage had the highest quality sleep measured objectively and subjectively, and these results persisted even after controlling for other known risk factors for sleep, including age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and depressive symptoms.

Source
University of Pittsburgh