Insomnia symptoms, nightmares, and suicide risk: duration of sleep disturbance matters. Suicide Life Threat Behav

Duration of insomnia symptoms or nightmares was investigated to see if it was related to suicide risk independent of current insomnia symptoms, night-mares, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic symptoms. The cross-sectional study involved analyses of survey responses from under-graduate students who endorsed either insomnia symptoms (n = 660) or night-mares (n = 312). Both insomnia symptom and nightmare duration were significantly associated with suicide risk independent of current insomnia symp-toms or nightmares, respectively. Relations were also significant after control-ling for anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic symptoms. Results suggest that duration of sleep disturbance is relevant when assessing sui-cide risk. Suicide is a large and growing problem in the United States. In 2009, suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the country, accounting for 36,909 deaths. Although sui-cide rates had remained fairly steady for many years, 2009 was the fourth straight year in which suicide rates increased, with the suicide rate for that year, 12.0/100,000, being the highest suicide rate in a decade (McIntosh, 2012). Thus, the quest to deter-mine what factors are associated with sui-cidal behaviors is imperative. Prior studies have shown that insom-nia symptoms and nightmares are related to suicidal ideation, attempts, and suicide