Anxiety Sensitivity as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Dysfunctional Beliefs About Sleep and Sleep Quality

Anxiety sensitivity, a construct defined by fear of anxiety and the feared consequences of anxiety, has been shown to play a role in the maintenance of insomnia. However, some researchers hypothesize that anxiety sensitivity must interact with some specific cognitive vulnerability to produce poor sleep quality. Additionally, the majority of studies examine only subjective measures of sleep quality, despite discrepancies between subjective report and objective measures such as polysomnography or actigraphy. The current study investigated anxiety sensitivity as a moderator of dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and sleep quality, measured both subjectively and objectively, in a sample of 145 participants recruited from the American University community. While an interaction does exist between anxiety sensitivity and dysfunctional beliefs about sleep, it appears that individuals scoring lower in anxiety sensitivity experience objectively worse sleep quality if they also score higher in dysfunctional beliefs about sleep. Individuals scoring higher in anxiety sensitivity appear protected from these effects. Subjective sleep quality varied independently as a function of anxiety sensitivity, but no interaction with dysfunctional beliefs about sleep was shown.