People at risk of hoarding disorder may have serious complaints about sleep

A new study suggests that those at risk of hoarding disorder may have serious complaints about sleep.

Results show that participants at risk of hoarding disorder scored significantly higher on the Sleep Habits Survey (SH) and on three sub-scales of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), including sleep latency; sleep disturbances and daytime disturbances.

"Hoarders typically have problems with decision making and executive function; poor sleep is known to compromise cognition generally, so if hoarders have cluttered/unusable bedrooms (and less comfortable, functional beds), any existing risk for cognitive dysfunction, depression and stress may increase as sleep quality worsens," said lead author Pamela Thacher, assistant professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Monday, June 8, in Seattle, Washington, at SLEEP 2015, the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

The study group comprised a sample of respondents from Amazon's Mechanical Turk website. Their advertisement asked for those interested in hoarding, sleep, or clutter, whether or not they had problems with these areas. Questionnaires included: Demographics; PSQI; Clutter and Hoarding Rating Scale (CHRS) and SH.

The study was the focus of Thacher's honor student last year, second author, Alexis Reinheimer, a psychology major at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.

Abstract Title: Sleep Quality and Sleep Disturbance in Those at Risk for Hoarding DisorderAbstract ID: 0920Presentation Date: Monday, June 8Presentation Type: Poster 302Presentation Time: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.