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Dissertation
What Keeps Me Up At Night: An Exploration of Sleep, Anxiety, and Mood Among Women With Infertility
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001639
Abstract
Introduction: Infertility and broadly-defined impaired fecundity are common conditions that affect millions of American women. The experience of infertility or having a problem becoming pregnant may be fraught with biopsychosocial stressors, which can have a deleterious impact on interpersonal relationships, as well as financial, medical, and psychological wellbeing. While there is a clear association between infertility and psychological distress (mood/anxiety symptoms), and between psychological distress and poor sleep, there is a marked paucity of research investigating insomnia and sleep continuity disturbance among individuals who are experiencing a perceived problem becoming pregnant, including those with infertility. Methods: The current study utilized single-timepoint self-report data to explore sleep, psychiatric, demographic, and fertility-related variables among women (N=139) who were experiencing a perceived problem becoming pregnant, including those who were experiencing a perceived problem becoming pregnant without infertility (n=22), those who met criteria for infertility but were not undergoing fertility treatment (n=49), and those who were undergoing fertility treatment (n=68). Results: Mean Insomnia Severity Index score across the sample was 11.8 (SD= 4.6), indicating subthreshold insomnia. Women going through fertility treatment reported significantly higher insomnia severity than those who were not going through treatment, F(138)= 7.0, p=.001. Our model for insomnia severity in this population was significant, F(12, 123)= 18.1, p<.001, R2= .64, and key predictors of insomnia severity included gravidity (t= 2.0, p= .045), anxiety severity (assessed utilizing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7; t= 5.6, p<.001), and perceived stress (assessed utilizing the Perceives Stress Scale; t= 2.7, p= .008). Discussion/Implications: This research revealed that women with a perceived problem becoming pregnant experience insomnia symptoms at rates that are markedly higher than the general population, and that sleep complaints may be a direct result of the problem becoming pregnant itself. Women who are undergoing fertility treatment appear to be particularly at risk. Gravidity, anxiety severity, and perceived stress appear to be the key drivers of insomnia severity in this population. These findings have the potential to impact how healthcare providers characterize normal versus abnormal sleep among women who are experiencing a perceived problem becoming pregnant, and thereby may impact how these complaints are conceptualized and treated.
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Details
- Title
- What Keeps Me Up At Night
- Creators
- Alison Rose Hartman
- Contributors
- Pamela A. Geller (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- viii, 125 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology); College of Arts and Sciences; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991020668910504721