Gender and socioeconomic patterning of self-reported sleep problems across European countries

Sleep problems mark an important part of the research into the physical health and mental well-being of modern societies. Although there are many studies on restless sleep, they are dominated by approaches that either focus on health-related issues or social factors (such as socioeconomic status). In this report, we address both types of determinants. This study replicates the analysis for the UK that was carried out by Arber et al. (Gender and socio-economic patterning of self-reported sleep problems in Britain. Soc Sci Med 2009;68:281-9). However, this replication, based on European Social Survey data, covers 20 European countries.

Data are taken from the European Social Survey Round 7 from 2014 (N = 32 704). A multilevel logistic regression was used to assess the impact of sociodemographic, socioeconomic and health-related issues on reported restless sleeping.

The results show that the influence of socioeconomic status has a secondary effect on sleep problems, health-related problems and depression. In addition, the study shows that individual-level, rather than country-level, factors have a major impact on restless sleep.

We have replicated all the findings of Arber et al. (Gender and socio-economic patterning of self-reported sleep problems in Britain. Soc Sci Med 2009;68:281-9) and confirmed the secondary nature of socioeconomic status factors to health and depression based on 20 European countries.