Are mindfulness and self-compassion associated with sleep and resilience in health professionals?

Abstract

Objectives To describe the relationship between trainable qualities (mindfulness and self-compassion), with factors conceptually related to burnout and quality of care (sleep and resilience) in young health professionals and trainees. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Large Midwestern academic health center. Participants 213 clinicians and trainees. Outcome Measures Sleep and resilience were assessed by using the 8-item PROMIS Sleep scale and the 6-item Brief Resilience Scale. Mindfulness and self-compassion were assessed using the 10-item Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale, Revised and the 12-item Self-Compassion Scale. Health was assessed with Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global Health measures, and stress was assessed with the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale. After examination of descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations, multiple regression analyses were done to determine whether mindfulness and self-compassion were associated with better sleep and resilience. Results Respondents had an average age of 28 years; 73 % were female. Professions included dieticians (11 %), nurses (14 %), physicians (38 %), social workers (24 %), and other (12 %). Univariate analyses showed normative values for all variables. Sleep disturbances were significantly and most strongly correlated with perceived stress and poorer health, but also with less mindfulness and self-compassion. Resilience was strongly and significantly correlated with less stress and better mental health, more mindfulness, and more self-compassion. Conclusions In these young health professionals and trainees, sleep and resilience are correlated with both mindfulness and self-compassion. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether training to increase mindfulness and self-compassion can improve clinicians' sleep and resilience or whether decreasing sleep disturbances and building resilience improves mindfulness and compassion.