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 Researchers found that the likelihood of sleep problems rose with
the number of hours spent in unpaid caregiving, and when caregiving
stopped, sleep disturbances were reduced.
“Informal caregiving is common, and the need for carers is expected
to grow due to population aging and cuts to social care services in
various countries,” said lead study author Lawrence Sacco of the
Institute of Gerontology at King’s College London in the UK.
Caregivers often face conflicting schedules and feel a sense of
obligation, leaving some with little or no choice about when and how
to help loved ones, he noted.
“Sleeping problems are common and deserve attention because people
with insomnia are more likely to suffer from other physical
illnesses,” Sacco told Reuters Health by email. “Sleep disturbance
and tiredness are also symptoms of depression and other mood
disorders.”
Sacco and his colleagues at the Stress Research Institute at
Stockholm University analyzed responses from 12,200 participants in
the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, a
questionnaire mailed every two years to employed residents of Sweden
aged 16 to 64. The researchers focused on surveys in 2010 through
2016.
They defined informal caregivers as those who, without pay, help or
care for an elderly, ill or disabled relative other than a child or
grandchild. Participants were asked how many hours they typically
spend on this caregiving each week.
They were also asked how often in the prior three months they had
difficulties falling asleep, repeated awakenings, premature
awakenings or restless sleep.
About 85 percent of the survey participants were not caregivers,
while 12 percent spent 1 to 5 hours providing care each week and 2
percent spent anywhere from 6 to 15 hours caregiving.
After adjusting for social and economic factors, as well as the
caregiver’s own health status, the researchers found that sleep
problems were more common among caregivers overall, and most common
among those who provided more than five hours a week.
When caregiving ceased from one survey year to the following one,
researchers saw a drop in reported sleep troubles.
Caregivers were more likely to be female and older, to have less
education, to work less than 20 paid hours per week and to report
physical pain, chronic illness, poor health and depression.
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“This means that increases in informal caregiving that are expected
in the years ahead as a result of population aging may hit those who
are already struggling the hardest,” Sacco said.
The study team saw no difference in sleep problems between men who
provided no care versus those who provided up to five hours of
caregiving, but women reported sleep problems at all levels of
caregiving. That could be related to the different tasks that men
and women perform as caregivers, the authors write in the journal
Sleep.
Future studies should look at working people in various countries,
Sacco added, since Sweden uses a welfare model aimed at minimizing
conflict between paid work and caregiving commitments.
“This is a wake-up call to governments and employers that they
should be supporting informal caregivers better,” he said.
In addition, future research should examine what types and aspects
of caregiving affect sleep the most, said Dr. Barry Oken of Oregon
Health and Science University in Portland, who wasn’t involved in
the study.
“Caregiving at home for someone with dementia or chronic pain may
cause more problems with the care recipient’s sleep and perhaps then
the caregiver’s sleep,” he told Reuters Health by email.
Oken said he is interested in finding ways to help caregivers
improve their sleep. In recent studies, he and colleagues have found
that mind-body practices, such as mindfulness meditation, can
improve mental health in caregivers and stressed older adults.
“Be aware that sleeping may be impacted by caregiving and explore
with health providers what you can do to minimize it,” he said.
“What society can do to help minimize this is alluded to here but is
a bigger question.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2CmAT5X Sleep, online December 8, 2017.
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