Sleep patterns and life style in Oxfordshire villages

Abstract

SummaryPatterns of sleep are described among the adult inhabitants of a group of Oxfordshire villages as ascertained through a sleep questionnaire. Sleep duration during the main sleep period on working days, and perceived sleep quality, are then analysed in terms of associations with aspects of life style. In both men and women some 20 out of 50 responses to life style questions show significant associations with sleep duration but most of these associations differ by sex. Some show corresponding associations with sleep quality, but others, mainly related to what people actually do, rather than what they say about how they feel, do not. A principal components analysis of those life style variables which show significant associations with sleep duration, and the adjustment of individual values by these factors for entry into a multiple regression, identifies five factors in each sex which are significantly related to sleep duration. Together they account for 9·9% of the observed male variance and 12·4% of the female variance.