Joint effects of sleep duration and sleep difficulty on suicidal ideation: evidence from NHANES 2005–2018

BACKGROUND: This research investigated the combined influence of sleep duration and sleep difficulty on suicidal ideation in the general populace. METHODS: National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) datasets from 2005 to 2018 were utilized in a cross-sectional study. Details on sleep duration, sleep difficulty, and suicidal ideation were accumulated using sets of questions. Sleep duration was segmented into short (≤ 6 h), optimal (6–9 h), and long (≥ 9 h). Multiple logistic regression models were utilized to analyze the links between sleep duration, sleep difficulty, and suicidal ideation, with multiplicative and additive interactions being examined. RESULTS: Among the 24,703 participants, the weighted percent suggested that 3.2% reported suicidal ideation. Outcomes of the fully-adjusted designs suggested: (1) A U-shaped organization was observed between sleep duration and suicidal ideation, with both short sleep duration (OR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.17– 1.67) and longer sleep duration (OR = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.46– 2.72) showing a boosted probability of suicidal ideation, (2) self-reported sleep difficulty confers 2.6-fold greater probabilities of suicidal ideation independent of sleep duration (OR = 2.67, 95% CI: 2.17– 3.28), and (3) the co-occurrence of longer sleep duration and sleep difficulty interactively enhanced suicide ideation risk (RERI = 1.24; AP = 0.28), accounting for 28% of suicidal ideation cases. CONCLUSIONS: Both quantitative (sleep duration) and qualitative (sleep difficulty) problems individually and jointly boost suicidal ideation danger. Our study suggests that incorporating multidimensional sleep health assessments could enhance suicide prevention protocols.