Associations of reported bruxism with insomnia and insufficient sleep symptoms among media personnel with or without irregular shift work

• Published in: Head & face medicine Vol. 4; no. 1; p. 4
• Main Authors: Ahlberg, Kristiina, Jahkola, Antti, Savolainen, Aslak, Könönen, Mauno, Partinen, Markku, Hublin, Christer, Sinisalo, Juha, Lindholm, Harri, Sarna, Seppo, Ahlberg, Jari
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 28-02-2008; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Bruxism; Care and treatment; Case-Control Studies; Diagnosis; Female; Finland; Health Surveys; Humans; Insomnia; Male; Mass Media; Middle Aged; Physiological aspects; Prevalence; Sleep; Sleep Bruxism - complications; Sleep Disorders, Circadian Rhythm - epidemiology; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders - epidemiology; Finland
• ISSN: 1746-160X; 1746-160X
• DOI: 10.1186/1746-160X-4-4

The aims were to investigate the prevalence of perceived sleep quality and insufficient sleep complaints, and to analyze whether self-reported bruxism was associated with perceptions of sleep, and awake consequences of disturbed sleep, while controlling confounding factors relative to poor sleep.
A standardized questionnaire was mailed to all employees of the Finnish Broadcasting Company with irregular shift work (n = 750) and to an equal number of randomly selected controls in the same company with regular eight-hour daytime work.
The response rate in the irregular shift work group was 82.3% (56.6% men) and in the regular daytime work group 34.3% (46.7% men). Self-reported bruxism occurred frequently (often or continually) in 10.6% of all subjects. Altogether 16.8% reported difficulties initiating sleep (DIS), 43.6% disrupted sleep (DS), and 10.3% early morning awakenings (EMA). The corresponding figures for non-restorative sleep (NRS), tiredness, and sleep deprivation (SLD) were 36.2%, 26.1%, and 23.7%, respectively. According to logistic regression, female gender was a significant independent factor for all insomnia symptoms, and older age for DS and EMA. Frequent bruxism was significantly associated with DIS (p = 0.019) and DS (p = 0.021). Dissatisfaction with current work shift schedule and frequent bruxism were both significant independent factors for all variables describing insufficient sleep consequences.
Self-reported bruxism may indicate sleep problems and their adherent awake consequences in non-patient populations.