Association Between Insomnia and Depressive Symptoms Among Law Enforcement Personnel: The Moderating Role of Resilience

Abstract

Law enforcement personnel work in environments in which exposure to stressors can lead to increased risk for mental health conditions such as depression. Symptoms of these conditions often include sleep disturbance. However, officers are also more likely to experience sleep disturbance because of occupational demands such as shift work, which further increases the risk for depression. There is a lack of research focused on the relationships between sleep quality, mental health, and the role that adaptive coping styles may have in mitigating adverse outcomes in these domains among law enforcement personnel. Therefore, we examined the extent to which insomnia was associated with depression among law enforcement personnel and the degree to which resilience moderates this association after accounting for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, also prevalent in this population and also associated with insomnia) symptom severity as well as age, gender, and racial and ethnic identity. Participants were 246 law enforcement personnel (Mage = 44.20, SD = 11.75; 76% identified as male) from a large urban agency. Results indicated that insomnia significantly relates to depression beyond levels of PTSD symptomatology. In addition, we found that resilience significantly moderates, or attenuates, the association between insomnia and depressive symptom severity. Our findings highlight the potential value of mental health and wellness programs emphasizing the development of resilience among law enforcement personnel.