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Seeking professional help for sleep-related complaints
Lisa Rauch1, Torsten Schneider1, Claus Wendt1
1Department of Social Science, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany.
Frontiers in Public Health
|December 20, 2024
Summary
Individuals attributing sleep problems to mental causes are less likely to seek professional help. This highlights the need for better sleep disorder management and destigmatization.
Area of Science:
- Sleep Medicine
- Health Services Research
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Sleep-related complaints are common, yet professional help-seeking is low.
- Existing models inadequately explain this low utilization of care.
- Perceived causes of sleep issues are explored as a key factor.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate factors influencing help-seeking behavior for sleep complaints.
- Examine the role of perceived cause in professional help utilization.
- Inform strategies to improve management of sleep disturbances.
Main Methods:
- Quantitative study of 3,000 German adults (ages 40-75).
- Logistic regression analysis of 761 individuals with sleep complaints.
- Perceived cause categorized as exclusively mental, partially mental, or not mental.
Main Results:
- Attributing sleep issues solely to mental causes significantly reduces likelihood of seeking professional help (AME: -0.158**).
- This effect persists even after controlling for complaint severity and duration (AME: -0.117**).
- Individuals with mental attributions are more prone to self-help, particularly medication.
Conclusions:
- Healthcare systems must prioritize sleep-related complaints.
- Interventions should include destigmatization and improved health literacy.
- Enhanced access to cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and thorough physician evaluations are crucial.
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