Complaints of poor sleep and symptoms of depression are likely to coexist in the spousally bereaved elderly. This study was concerned with the correlation between depressive symptoms and various measures of subjectively reported sleep using questionnaire and diary instruments in 38 bereaved seniors (60y+). Correlations between the sleep measures and days since loss and grief intensity were also calculated. All sleep disruption measures correlated significantly with depression score, but only sleep duration correlated with grief intensity, and no sleep measure correlated with days since loss. Therapies which address both sleep and depression are likely to be of benefit to bereaved seniors. 1. Introduction The elderly are especially vulnerable to depression, partly due to endogenous factors linked to the aging process [1]. Superimposed upon this, though, is the fact that at some time in the older person's life the individual's spouse may die, leaving them spousally bereaved. Spousal bereavement is a very devastating, life-altering event that becomes more likely with advancing age [2, 3]. Widowhood affects millions of men, and a greater number of women, around the world every year. Immediately after the loss of a close loved one, people experience a period of acute grief that generally includes intrusive thoughts, intense emotional distress, and withdrawal from normal daily activities [4]. This period, along with the chronic grief experience that follows, may vary in length and intensity from individual to individual and often resembles clinical depression [5]. Major depression afflicts about 28% of the spousally bereaved [6]. This risk of depression appears to peak during the first six months of bereavement [2, 7], although depressive symptoms can be present for up to 2 years [8]. Even bereaved persons with subclinical levels of depressive symptomatology may suffer extensively, for they too have a greater likelihood of functional impairment, poorer health, more physician visits and mental health counseling, and increased use of antidepressants than do nonbereaved individuals [3, 9, 10]. In a parallel manner, elderly persons are (again, probably for endogenous reasons) particularly vulnerable to sleep disruption [11, 12]. Also, bereavement per se has been shown to interfere with sleep [10, 13]. Thus, depressive symptoms and complaints of poor sleep are likely to coexist in the spousally bereaved elderly. This study was concerned with the correlation between depressive symptoms (as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) [14]), and
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