Females at Higher Risk of Insomnia: Gender and Insomnia Prevalence

Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Background
Insomnia is a term that refers to the difficulty to find or maintain sleep. It
is a mental disorder that affects about 25% of the adult population (RC
Kessler, 2010). It is a common disorder but often neglected though it has
adverse effects on the mental and reproductive health of a human.
Insomnia can be primary or secondary. Primary insomnia implies that a
person has sleep disorder not influenced by other health conditions or
disorders while secondary insomnia implies that a person’s sleeping
disorders are associated with other factors such as health problems like
depression or pain.
Many factors lead to insomnia. Gender is one of these factors. Being
male or female has different degrees of insomnia risk. The female gender
are believed to be at more risk (Venkata Rebbapragada, 2006)
Aim
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of sleeping habits on
insomnia.
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were designed for the study.
Ho: There is no significant effect of gender on insomnia.
H1: There is significant effect of gender on insomnia, and;
H0: Sexual orientation has an effect on sleep quality(PSQI).
H1: Sexual orientation has no effect on sleep quality(PSQI).
Results
Insomnia severity and its relationship with gender
Insomnia severity index (ISI) was analyzed for descriptive statistics. The following bar
graph represents the frequencies of the indices.
Descriptive statistics analysis was carried out on the sex data and the following table
summarizes that.
Significance of the study
It is a joy to every family and individual all over the world to enjoy
undisturbed sleep through all nights. Understanding the relationship
between gender and insomnia prevalence is important in order to enjoy
this night’s tranquility. This study therefore tries to establish the
existence of such relationship.
Methods
A sample of 172 individuals, 40 and 132 of whom were male and female
respectively was enrolled in the study and responses recorded on their
sleep habits. Insomnia sovereignty index (ISI) was used to diagnose
insomnia and information regarding gender-insomnia association was
collected.
The presence of insomnia was defined by difficulty to sleep, staying too
long in bed before obtaining sleep, early morning awakening in addition
to frequent awakening. (Bo Yang, 2012)
Data was analyzed using SPSS for the prevalence of insomnia and its
association with gender.
The sex file was split and descriptive analysis carried out for the variables sex and
insomnia severity index in order to assess the difference between the insomnia
severity index means of the two genders as depicted in the output below.
Descriptive Statistics
Sex N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Male Insomnia Severity Index (raw score) 40 1 23 8.10 5.883
Valid N (listwise) 40
Female Insomnia Severity Index (raw score) 132 0 23 8.64 5.159
Valid N (listwise) 132
The results suggest that of the 23 insomnia severity indices, score index number 7 had the highest
frequency of responses. This value indicates that
Of 172 participants, 16 responded positive to index score 7. The average score of the responses is 8.2
implying subthreshold insomnia was reported among the participants.
53.5% of the respondents had an insomnia severity index not greater than 8 implying no clinically
significant insomnia was found in them.
On carrying out correlation analysis between sex and ISI, a correlation coefficient of 0.573 was
obtained. This implies a positive moderate relationship between sex and ISI.
The insomnia severity index mean for males (8.10) is lower than the insomnia severity index mean for
females (8.64) implying that females are more likely to suffer from insomnia than male humans.
Conclusion
It is evident that gender is indeed positively correlated to insomnia prevalence. Being male or female
has different degree of insomnia severity.
Females tend to be more susceptible to insomnia compared to their male counterparts.
This could be as a result of depressive symptoms which are more common among females compared to
their male counterparts (Johnson, 2015).
Female humans should therefore avoid exposure to factors that may bring about insomnia.
References
•Bo Yang, A. Z. (2012). Metabolomic study of insomnia and intervention effects of Suanzaoren
decoction using ultra-performance liquid-chromatography/electrospray-ionization synapt high-
definition mass spectrometry.
•Johnson, K. S. (2015). Effects of a Multi-Component Behavioral Intervention (MCI) for Insomnia
on Depressive and Insomnia Symptoms in Individuals with High and Low Depression.
•RC Kessler, C. C. (2010). PND10 THE AMERICA INSOMNIA SURVEY (AIS): AN
EPIDEMIOLOGY STUDY OF INSOMNIA PREVALENCE AND BURDEN IN A
REPRESENTATIVE POPULATION.
•Venkata Rebbapragada, S. S. (2006). P466 Insomnia in obstructive sleep apnea: prevalence
and gender and ethnic variance.
Males and females have equal sleep quality.
Females are at higher risk of suffering from Insomnia than males
Relationship between gender and sleep quality (Bedtime PSQI)
Pearson correlation was carried out to determine relationship between gender and sleep quality and the
following is the output.
Correlations
Bedtime (PSQI) Sex
Bedtime (PSQI) Pearson Correlation 1 -.101
Sig. (2-tailed) .188
N 172 172
Sex Pearson Correlation -.101 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .188
N 172 172
The pearson correlation coefficient between sex and bedtime
(PSQI) is -0.101 indicating a negative relationship between
gender and sleep quality.