Background
Age‐related macular degeneration, a prevalent degenerative retinal disease, is associated with non‐visual and psychosocial impairments that may affect sleep. In this systematic review, we evaluated associations between age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) and sleep, highlighted knowledge gaps and provided evidence‐based recommendations to clinicians to enable holistic management of AMD patients.
Methods
We searched PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Central registries for papers published before May 2022. Non‐English, qualitative studies and grey literature were excluded. Studies evaluating the association between AMD and sleep (including sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea), and vice versa, were included. The quality of shortlisted studies was evaluated using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale.
Results
Six (two case–control studies, three longitudinal cohort studies and one cross‐sectional study) of 551 studies were included in this review. Four studies found that AMD was associated with increased rates of sleep apnea and poorer reported sleep quality, while five studies showed that patients with sleep apnea or insomnia were at higher risk of developing AMD. Associations between self‐reported sleep quantity and AMD were conflicting. No study evaluated the relationship between AMD and sleep using objective sleep assessment tools.
Conclusion
Only a limited number of studies investigated associations between AMD and sleep. These studies suggest a bidirectional relationship between AMD and sleep dysfunction yet disagree on the relationship between sleep quantity and the likelihood of AMD. Additional studies, using objective characterisation of sleep in patients with AMD are required to confirm these findings.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.