Scientific Rationale: Chronic work-related stress is a common precursor to sleep disturbances, including insomnia and unrestorative sleep, which in turn contribute to significant daytime fatigue. While cognitive and physiological factors like rumination and hyperarousal are thought to form a self-perpetuating cycle, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain complex and not fully mapped. A comprehensive, data-driven investigation using multimodal biomarkers and brain imaging could help disentangle these pathways and identify novel associations worthy of deeper study.
Aims: This project aims to explore broad relationships between psychosocial stress, sleep quality, and daytime fatigue within the UK Biobank. We will take an integrative, hypothesis-generating approach to examine how measures from different domains-including self-reported mental state, objective sleep and activity metrics from accelerometry, brain structure and function from MRI, and a range of peripheral biomarkers-interrelate. A key goal is to assess whether combined models across these modalities offer better explanatory power for fatigue and sleep outcomes than single-domain models, and to identify promising candidate mechanisms for future targeted research.
Project Methods: We will employ multivariate statistical and machine learning models to analyse the relationships between key variables. Broad domains of interest include: 1) exposures related to work, stress, and cognitive style; 2) outcomes of sleep disturbance and daytime fatigue; 3) potential mediators such as pre-sleep arousal and nocturnal activity patterns derived from accelerometry; and 4) a range of neurobiological variables from brain imaging and blood-based biomarker panels.
Public Health Impact: Understanding the multifaceted links between work, sleep, and well-being is a major public health priority.
