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The dynamic relationship between sleep and psychotic experiences across the early stages of the psychosis continuum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2023

S. van der Tuin*
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Psychiatry, Interdisciplinary Centre Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, Groningen, the Netherlands
S. H. Booij
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Psychiatry, Interdisciplinary Centre Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, Groningen, the Netherlands Center for Integrative Psychiatry, Lentis, Groningen, the Netherlands
A. J. Oldehinkel
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Psychiatry, Interdisciplinary Centre Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, Groningen, the Netherlands
D. van den Berg
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical, Neuro- and Developmental Psychology, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands Department of Psychosis Research, Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, the Netherlands
J. T. W. Wigman
Affiliation:
University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Psychiatry, Interdisciplinary Centre Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, Groningen, the Netherlands
U. Lång
Affiliation:
University College Dublin, School of Medicine, Dublin, Ireland
I. Kelleher
Affiliation:
University College Dublin, School of Medicine, Dublin, Ireland University of Edinburgh, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh, UK
*
Corresponding author: S. van der Tuin; Email: s.van.der.tuin@umcg.nl
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Abstract

Background:

Psychotic disorders develop gradually along a continuum of severity. Understanding factors associated with psychosis development, such as sleep, could aid in identification of individuals at elevated risk. This study aimed to assess (1) the dynamic relationship between psychotic experiences (PEs) and sleep quality and quantity, and (2) whether this relationship differed between different clinical stages along the psychosis continuum.

Methods:

We used daily diary data (90 days) of individuals (N = 96) at early stages (i.e. before a first diagnosis of psychosis) along the psychosis continuum. Multilevel models were constructed with sleep quality and sleep quantity as predictors of PEs and vice versa. Post-hoc, we constructed a multilevel model with both sleep quality and quantity as predictors of PEs. In addition, we tested whether associations differed between clinical stages.

Results:

Within persons, poorer sleep predicted next day PEs (B = −0.02, p = 0.01), but not vice versa. Between persons, shorter sleep over the 90-day period predicted more PEs (B = −0.04, p = 0.002). Experiencing more PEs over 90-days predicted poorer (B = −0.02, p = 0.02) and shorter (B = −1.06, p = 0.008) sleep. We did not find any significant moderation effects for clinical stage.

Conclusions:

We found a bidirectional relationship between sleep and PEs with daily fluctuations in sleep predicting next day PEs and general patterns of more PEs predicting poorer and shorter sleep. Our results highlight the importance of assessing sleep as a risk marker in the early clinical stages for psychosis.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Allocation to subgroups.

Figure 1

Table 1. Descriptive statistics per subgroup and for the total group

Figure 2

Table 2. Bidirectional associations between sleep and PEs (model 1 and 2) for the total sample