Sleep

We all know that we feel better when we have a good night's sleep. And the opposite is true too - we struggle through the day if we feel we haven't had enough shut-eye.

But it seems that what actually matters is how we feel about how much - and how good - our sleep has been. The actual quantity and quality of sleep seems not to matter at all. These findings were recently published in the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, not surprisingly called "Sleep"

According to lead author Graciela E. Silva, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University1, the results provide important and surprising insights regarding the relationship between sleep and quality of life.

"While we were expecting an association between quality of sleep and quality of life, it was surprising that we did not find a significant association between objective measures of quality of sleep and quality of life, but that only subjective measures of sleep were associated with quality of life," said Silva. "These findings signal to the importance of perception of quality of sleep on quality of life."

The reports concluded that whilst the quality of sleep measured declined slightly over the five year study period, this was not associated with poor quality of life, but the worsening perception of sleep quality was associated with an actual reduction in quality of life.

1. 1. College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University - Subjective symptoms of sleep quality and daytime sleepiness associated with declining quality of life