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Poor sleep quality predicts psychotic‐like symptoms: an experience sampling study in young adults with schizotypal traits
Author(s) -
Simor P.,
Báthori N.,
Nagy T.,
Polner B.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/acps.13064
Subject(s) - experience sampling method , evening , psychology , mood , clinical psychology , affect (linguistics) , sleep (system call) , psychosis , psychiatry , medicine , social psychology , physics , communication , astronomy , computer science , operating system
Objective Psychotic‐like experiences ( PLE s) are unusual experiences such as perceptual abnormalities and delusional‐like thoughts that resemble the symptoms of psychosis at the sub‐clinical level. PLE s are associated with sleep complaints in healthy and clinical samples; however, evidence for day‐to‐day associations between poor sleep and subsequent PLE s under naturalistic conditions is scarce. We hypothesized that poor sleep quality would predict next days’ PLE s, and vice versa, daytime PLE s would be associated with worse subsequent sleep quality. Method Seventy‐three university students with moderate to high levels of positive schizotypy participated in an experience sampling study. Participants rated their sleep each morning, as well as PLE s and affective states during the day over 3 weeks. Results Multilevel regression models indicated that poor sleep quality predicted increased PLE s the following day. Poor sleep was linked to negative daytime mood that partially mediated the associations between sleep quality and next days’ PLE s. Furthermore, PLE s were enhanced in the evening as compared to daytime reports. The prediction of poor sleep quality by previous days’ PLE s was negligible. Conclusions The results are consistent with the position that sleep‐related interventions might reduce the risk of psychosis, especially in individuals that tend to experience psychotic‐like phenomena and negative affect.