Abnormalities of sleep patterns are common in people with psychiatric disorders and often represent a source of distress, worsening the outcome. However, little is knwon about the relationship between psychotic-like symptoms and sleep disorders in the general population.

1. Whether there is a relationship between sleep disorders and psychotic-like experiences in a sample of individuals belonging to the general population. 2. Which sleep disorders are more commonly associated with psychotic-like experiences.

A web survey was spread thorugh social networks. We administered the SLEEP-50 to investigate the presence of sleep disorders and the Community Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE) for psychotic-like symptoms. Moreover, socio-demographic characteristics of participants were collected.

The web-survey was completed by 824 participants. Six people refused to give consent and 95 were excluded because they declared to suffer from psychiatric disorder sor other medical conditions potentially infleuncing on sleep. Therefore, 729 subjects were included in the analysis. Pearson correlation coefficients showed strong correlations between the scale regarding SLEEP-50 “All sleep disorders” scale and CAPE Total and Depressive scales (r = 0.52, p < 0.001). A moderate correlation was found between “All sleep disorders” and CAPE Negative (r = 0.49) and Positive (r = 0.32) scales. Correlations with specific SLEEP-50 subscales were also found.

There seems to be a strong relationship between psychotic-like symptoms and sleep problems in the general population. Our findings might indicate that some sleep abnormalities may represent earlier symptoms of a psychiatric condition and need to be always monitored even in the non-psychiatric population.

No significant relationships.

Psychosis-like experiences (PEs) are common in patients with non-psychotic disorders. Several factors predict reporting of PEs in mood disorders, including mood-associated cognitive biases, anxiety and features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Childhood traumatic experiences (CEs), often reported by patients with BPD, are an important risk factor for mental disorders. We hypothesized that features of BPD may mediate the relationship between CEs and PEs. In this study, we investigated the relationships between self-reported PEs, CEs and features of BPD in patients with mood disorders.

As part of the Helsinki University Psychiatric Consortium study, McLean Screening Instrument (MSI), Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE-42) and Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS) were filled in by patients with mood disorders (n = 282) in psychiatric care. Correlation coefficients between total scores of scales and their dimensions were estimated, multiple regression and mediation analyses were conducted.

Total scores of MSI correlated strongly with scores of the CAPE-42 dimension “frequency of positive symptoms” (rho = 0.56; p ≤ 0.001) and moderately with scores of TADS (rho = 0.4; p ≤ 0.001). Total score of MSI and its dimension “cognitive symptoms”, including identity disturbance, distrustfulness and dissociative symptoms, fully mediated the relation between TADS and CAPE-42. Each cognitive symptom showed a partial mediating role (dissociative symptoms 43% (CI = 25–74%); identity disturbance 40% (CI = 30-73%); distrustfulness 18% (CI = 12-50%)).

Self-reported cognitive-perceptual symptoms of BPD fully mediate, while affective, behavioural and interpersonal symptoms only partially mediate the relationships between CEs and PEs. Recognition of co-morbid features of BPD in patients with mood disorders reporting PEs is essential.