Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 13;45(6):zsac084.
doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsac084.

Sleep irregularity and nonsuicidal self-injurious urges and behaviors

Taylor A Burke  1   2 , Jessica L Hamilton  3 , David Seigel  4 , Marin Kautz  5 , Richard T Liu  1   2 , Lauren B Alloy  5 , David H Barker  6   7
Affiliations

Sleep irregularity and nonsuicidal self-injurious urges and behaviors

Taylor A Burke et al. Sleep. .

Abstract

Study objectives: The objectives of this study were to examine the relationships between sleep regularity and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), including lifetime NSSI history and daily NSSI urges.

Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 119; 18-26 years), approximately half of whom endorsed a lifetime history of repetitive NSSI, completed a 10-day actigraphy and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol. A Sleep Regularity Index was calculated for all participants using scored epoch by epoch data to capture rapid changes in sleep schedules. Participants responded to EMA prompts assessing NSSI urge severity and negative affect three times daily over the 10-day assessment period.

Results: Results indicate that individuals with a repetitive NSSI history were more likely to experience sleep irregularity than those without a history of NSSI. Findings also suggest that sleep irregularity was associated with more intense urges to engage in NSSI on a daily basis, even after accounting for average daily sleep duration, sleep timing, negative affect, and NSSI history. Neither sleep duration nor sleep timing was associated with NSSI history nor daily NSSI urge intensity.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that sleep irregularity is linked with NSSI, including NSSI history and intensity of urges to engage in NSSI. The present study not only supports the growing evidence linking sleep disturbance with the risk for self-injury but also demonstrates this relationship using actigraphy and real-time assessments of NSSI urge severity. Findings highlight the importance of delineating the nuances in sleep irregularity that are proximally associated with NSSI risk and identifying targets for intervention.

Keywords: actigraphy; ecological momentary assessment; nonsuicidal self-injury; nonsuicidal self-injury urges; self-harm; sleep disturbance; sleep dysregulation; sleep problems; sleep regularity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. International Society for the Study of Self-Injury. What is non-suicidal self-injury? https://www.itriples.org/what-is-nssi.
    1. Duffy ME, et al. Trends in mood and anxiety symptoms and suicide-related outcomes among U.S. undergraduates, 2007–2018: evidence from two national surveys. J Adolesc Health. 2019;65(5):590–598. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.04.033. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kiekens G, et al. Non-suicidal self-injury among first-year college students and its association with mental disorders: results from the World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) initiative. Psychol Med. 2021:1–12. doi:10.1017/S0033291721002245. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wester K, et al. Nonsuicidal self-Injury: increased prevalence in engagement. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2018;48(6):690–698. doi:10.1111/sltb.12389. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ammerman BA, et al. Predicting nonsuicidal self-injury in borderline personality disorder using ecological momentary assessment. J Personal Disord. 2017;31(6):844–855. doi:10.1521/pedi_2017_31_278. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types