Psychic correlates of sleep symptoms in the elderly

Night sleep symptoms and their relationship to a number of psychic, somatic and social variables were investigated in 453 elderly subjects living in the community. Multivariate statistics indicated that: (a) higher levels of somatization and anxiety were independently associated with worse quality of sleep; (b) depression was not independently associated with poor sleep quality, and association in univariate analysis was explained by higher levels of somatization; (c) sexual interest, which may be an indicator of active sexual life, was associated with better sleep quality both in elderly men and women; (d) waking up frequently in the night showed a correlation pattern with psychic, social and somatic variables different from the other sleep symptoms, suggesting a different cause.