Azizeh Afkham-Ebrahimi, Maryam Rasoulian, Zahra Taherifar, Maryam Zare,
Volume 23, Issue 4 (2-2010)
Abstract
Background: A significant relationship between psychiatric disorders principally
depression and anxiety and insomnia is well-known in general population. Ahigh percent
of insomnia sufferers report anxiety symptoms. Anxiety is also frequently seen in
medical patients whom complaints of sleep problems are often prominent.
Method: 250 outpatients with various medical complaints participated in the study
and completed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI) and Beck Anxiety inventory
(BAI).
Results: The patients reported moderate anxiety on BAI. Significant correlations
were found between anxiety and four components of sleep sleep quality, sleep latency,
sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency.
Conclusion: The correlation of sleep complaints with anxiety symptoms indicated a
high interrelatedness between anxiety and sleep complaints. Insomnia is a disorder of
hyperarousal. Nonetheless inqury into mechanisms of arousal regulation could further
explain the anxiety and sleep disorders as well.
