Insomnia moderates the association between psychotic-like experiences and suicidal ideation in a non-clinical population: a network analysis

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) have been associated with poor sleep quality and increased suicide risk. However, the association between PLEs, insomnia and suicide risk has not been thoroughly investigated in prior studies. In this study, we aimed to explore as to whether insomnia moderates the association between PLEs and suicidal ideation. The study was performed in 4203 young adults (aged 18–35 years, 63.8% females). Data were collected using self-reports. Moderation analysis demonstrated that PLEs are associated with higher levels of the current suicidal ideation only in participants with greater severity of insomnia (B = 0.003, p < 0.001). This analysis included age, gender, education, occupation and depressive symptoms as covariates. Moreover, the network analysis demonstrated that nodes representing PLEs are connected to the node of current suicidal ideation only in participants with greater severity of insomnia. The nodes of PLEs connected to the current suicidal ideation node captured PLEs representing deja vu experiences, auditory hallucination-like experiences and paranoia (edge weights between 0.011 and 0.083). Furthermore, nodes representing PLEs were the three most central nodes in the network analysis of individuals with higher levels of insomnia (strength centrality between 0.96 and 1.10). In turn, the three most central nodes were represented by depressive symptoms in the network analysis of individuals with lower levels of insomnia (strength centrality between 0.67 and 0.79). Findings from this study indicate that insomnia might be an important risk factor of suicide in people with PLEs, especially those reporting deja vu experiences, auditory hallucination-like experiences and paranoia.