I denne studien har forskerne undersøkt to grupper preget av forbedring eller forverring av økonomisk status. I tillegg undersøkte de også en gruppe som alltid hadde vært fattig og en gruppe som aldri hadde vært fattig, der sistnevnte gruppe ble brukt som referansegruppe. Ungdom fra familier som opplevde forverring i familiens inntekt fra 2004 til 2010 rapporterte betydeligere dårligere søvn på de fleste utfallsmål. I gruppen som aldri hadde vært fattig var gjennomsnittlig søvnlengde på hverdager 6 timer og 28 minutter, mens den blant ungdom fra familier med økende grad av fattigdom var 32 minutter kortere. Gjennomsnittlig våkentid i løpet av natten var 24 minutter i gruppen som hadde en forverring av familieøkonomien, sammenlignet med 14 minutter hos dem som aldri hadde vært fattig. Forskerne fant ingen sammenheng mellom familieøkonomi og insovningstid blant ungdommene.

Studien er publisert i Sleep Medicine

Moving into poverty during childhood is associated with later sleep problems.

Børge Sivertsen, Tormod Bøe, Jens Christoffer Skogen, Keith J. Petrie og Mari Hysing.

OBJECTIVE:

A social gradient in sleep has been demonstrated across the life span, but previous studies have been cross-sectional and used self-reported socioeconomic status (SES) indicators. Using registry-based data on family income trajectories, the current study examined the association between relative poverty in childhood and subsequent sleep in adolescence.

METHODS:

Data on family income during 2004-2010 was obtained from the National Income Registry. Poverty was defined as household income <60% of the mean national income. Information on self-reported sleep was based the youth@hordaland-survey (n = 8873) conducted in 2012 when the adolescents were 16-19 years old. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify trajectories of family household poverty, and analysis of variance and general linear models were used to examine associations between income trajectories and sleep, adjusting for confounders.

RESULTS:

LCA identified four classes: 'never poor', two classes characterized by moving in or out of poverty, and 'chronically poor'. Compared to the 'never poor' group, adolescents from families in the 'moving into poverty' group displayed worse sleep across most sleep measures, including shorter sleep, lower sleep efficiency, and more nocturnal wake time (but not sleep onset latency). Neither adolescents from families who had moved out of poverty by increasing family income, nor the 'chronically poor' group differed significantly from the reference group.

CONCLUSIONS:

The study found that downward socioeconomic mobility was associated with increased adolescent sleep problems. More studies are required on the mechanisms that may account for the association, to find targeted and effective strategies to prevent short sleep duration in adolescents from families with unstable financial circumstances.