Happily married women have less trouble sleeping

It is no secret that a good night's sleep can lead to a well-balanced and healthy lifestyle, but the age-old question of how to get a decent eight hours still remains. However, a University of Pittsburgh study finds that a happy marriage can lead to a better night's sleep for women. The study examined the association between marital happiness and sleep disturbances in multiple ethnic groups of married or partnered women. The study also took into account many other factors that might contribute to sleeplessness, such as a woman's social support network, depressive symptoms, economic hardship and employment status, alcohol and caffeine consumption, presence of children in the home, sexual activity, age and hormonal status.

The study found that:

• Women who believe they have happy marriages reported less difficulty falling asleep, less likelihood of waking up during the night or too early in the morning and less restless sleep compared to women who report less happiness in their marriages.

• Caucasian and African-American women had more sleep complaints than the Japanese, Hispanic and Chinese women.

• Caucasian and Japanese women reported the highest marital happiness.

• After taking into account all of the factors that might contribute to sleeplessness, such as depression, age and economic hardship, the level of marital happiness emerged as an independent risk factor for the existence of sleep disturbances.

"General social support was not associated with sleep disturbances, which suggests that there may be something specific about happiness in one's marriage that is associated with better sleep, rather than a general reflection of one's support network," said Wendy Troxel, PhD, lead author and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The findings further suggest that feeling happy in one's marriage may present benefits for sleep that go beyond being a "happy" or well-adjusted person."

Source: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, January 26, 2009