Suicide is the 9th leading cause of death in the United States. The U.S. Surgeon General has recently called for greater research to study this problem, which accounts for 30,000 annual deaths. While there are many known risks factors for suicidality, such as co-morbid psychiatric disorders, age and marital status, the relationship between sleep and and suicidal behavior has only recently been explored. A few studies have demonstrated positive correlations between suicidality and sleep quality, most notably in depressed patients. Method A chart review was performed from the intake data of female sexual assault survivors with insomnia, nightmares and PTSD symptoms who had enrolled in a nightmare treatment program.
Higher scores reflect greater severity of each measured item.
Results Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. Conclusions Similar to previous studies, sleep quality showed a moderate correlation with suicidality. Nightmares also demonstrated a moderate correlation and PTSD demonstrated a large correlation. The current study raises the possibility that a patient's exhaustion may be associated with some aspect of their sleep quality. All of these conditions may deplete essential energy reserves through chronic sleep deprivation, which, in turn, could degrade coping capacity.