Sacco and his colleagues at the Stress Research Institute at Stockholm University analyzed responses
from 12,200 participants in the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health, a questionnaire mailed every two years to employed residents of Sweden aged 16 to 64.
The researchers focused on surveys in 2010 through 2016.
They defined informal caregivers as those who, without pay, help or care for an elderly, i
ll or disabled relative other than a child or grandchild.
Participants were asked how many hours they typically spend on this caregiving each week.
They were also asked how often in the prior three months they had difficulties falling asleep,
repeated awakenings, premature awakenings or restless sleep.
About 85 percent of the survey participants were not caregivers,
while 12 percent spent 1 to 5 hours providing care each week and 2 percent spent anywhere from 6 to 15 hours caregiving.
After adjusting for social and economic factors,
as well as the caregiver’s own health status,
the researchers found that sleep problems were more common among caregivers overall,
and most common among those who provided more than five hours a week.
When caregiving ceased from one survey year to the following one,
researchers saw a drop in reported sleep troubles.
Caregivers were more likely to be female and older,
to have less education,
to work less than 20 paid hours per week and to report physical pain,
chronic illness, poor health and depression.
“This means that increases in informal caregiving
that are expected in the years ahead as a result of population aging may hit those who are already struggling the hardest,” Sacco said.