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Poor sleep quality has been shown to adversely affect neurobehavior including an increase in depression symptoms. Police officers are at increased risk of poor sleep quality due to occupational factors. This study analyzed self-reported sleep and depression data from police officers; 391 police officers from Buffalo, New York reported on sleep and depression by completing the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) questionnaires. Mean CES-D scores were assessed across quintiles of PSQI. As PSQI scores increased, reflecting poorer sleep quality, CES-D scores also increased significantly indicating an increase in depression symptoms as sleep quality worsens. This trend held for both male and female officers. Mean CES-D scores across quintiles ranged from 4.72 to 12.65 in men and from 5.53 to 12.63 in women. Multivariate adjustment only very slightly attenuated the association in female officers. After adjustmnent, five of the seven PSQI components showed statistically significant associations with CES-D scores in male officers and two in female officers. Sleep quality was significantly and independently associated with depressive symnptoms as evidenced by a trend of increasing depressive symptom scores with decreasing sleep quality in both male and female officers.

The objective was to investigate associations ofperceived stress with sleep duration and quality among 430 police officers. Perceived stress was assessed using the perceived stress scale. Sleep duration and quality were assessed using the Pittsburg sleep quality index questionnaire. Mean hours of sleep were determined across quartiles of perceived stress using ANOVA/ANCOVA. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for poor sleep quality across perceived stress quartiles. Mean age was 42.1 years. Perceived stress was inversely associated with sleep duration among certain groups: men (p = 0.004), higher-ranked officers (p = 0.002), those with higher depressive symptoms (p 0.097), no military experience (p = 0.006), and higher workload (p = 0.003). Gender, police rank, depressive symptoms, and workload each significantly modified the association between stress and sleep duration. Prevalence of poor sleep quality increased with higher levels of perceived stress; the trend was significant among men only (p < 0.0001), and gender significantly modified this association (interaction p = 0.015). Compared to those in the first quartile of perceived stress, women in the fourth quartile were almost four times and men almost six times more likely to have poor sleep quality. Perceived stress was inversely associated with sleep duration and positively associated with poor sleep quality.