Regarding associations with poor mental and physical health, the positive association with days of poor mental functioning suggests that sleep may be an important indicator of psychiatric disorders. Indeed, much of the literature in this domain focuses on specific sleep disorders and mental health risks including obstructive sleep apnea (69), insomnia (70), and symptoms of daytime sleepiness (71–73). However, habitual sleep, without the presence of a sleep disorder, seems to play an important role. Previous studies have demonstrated the role of sleep duration and psychological health risk, but most have focused on specific populations including the military (74, 75). Less is known, however, about the role of physical health functioning and sleep duration.
There is limited data on self-rated overall health and sleep duration. One large-scale study found that individuals with longer or shorter sleep duration were more likely to report fair/poor health even after controlling for important factors including, age, education, and BMI (76). Similarly, data from the 2008 BRFSS revealed that insufficient sleep was positively associated with poor health status (77). Together, these findings suggest that insufficient sleep is an important contributor to overall health status.
Regarding emotional support, women who reported low emotional support were more likely to report poor sleep compared to those who scored high on emotional support (78). These findings were not significant for men, suggesting a gender interaction between emotional support and poor sleep. The present study found that low emotional support was associated with insufficient sleep, echoing these previous findings.