BackgroundAlthough the importance of sleep difficulties in emotional disorders has long been acknowledged, the nature of the potential reciprocal relationship between sleep and depressive symptoms is not yet well understood. The coronavirus disease 19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to study the interrelation of these symptoms over a period marked by increases in sleep and psychological difficulties.MethodsUsing online data collection, we followed 1200 adults (59% male) through 1 year of the pandemic. Measures of sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms were assessed at eight time points. Factor analysis of the items from these two measures suggested separate insomnia and depressive symptom factors. A random intercept cross‐lagged panel model was used to assess within‐person relationships between factor analysis‐informed subscales of insomnia and depressive symptoms.ResultsDepressive symptoms predicted subsequent changes in insomnia symptoms; however, insomnia did not predict changes in depressive symptoms.ConclusionsOur findings suggest the impact of depressive symptoms on insomnia is evident, but the reverse is not. Implications of this finding along with the need for research addressing depressive symptoms and insomnia as treatment targets are discussed.

中文翻译：

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测试抑郁症状和失眠之间的相互关系

背景尽管人们早已认识到睡眠困难在情绪障碍中的重要性，但睡眠与抑郁症状之间潜在相互关系的本质尚不清楚。冠状病毒病 19 大流行提供了一个独特的机会来研究这些症状在睡眠和心理困难增加的时期内的相互关系。方法利用在线数据收集，我们对 1200 名成年人（59% 男性）进行了为期一年的大流行跟踪。在八个时间点评估睡眠障碍和抑郁症状的测量结果。对这两项指标的因素分析表明失眠和抑郁症状因素是分开的。使用随机截距交叉滞后面板模型来评估基于因子分析的失眠分量表和抑郁症状之间的人内关系。结果抑郁症状预测了失眠症状的后续变化；然而，失眠并不能预测抑郁症状的变化。结论我们的研究结果表明，抑郁症状对失眠的影响是明显的，但反之则不然。讨论了这一发现的意义以及将抑郁症状和失眠作为治疗目标的研究需求。