Objective: Individuals with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are at increased risk to suffer from further somatic and sleep-related complaints. To assess OSA, demographic, anthropometric, and subjective/objective sleep parameters are taken into consideration, but often separately. Here, we entered demographic, anthropometric, subjective, and objective sleep- and breathing-related dimensions in one model. Methods: We reviewed the demographic, anthropometric, subjective and objective sleep- and breathing-related data, and polysomnographic records of 251 individuals with diagnosed OSA. OSA was considered as a continuous and as categorical variable (mild, moderate, and severe OSA). A series of correlational computations, X2-tests, F-tests, and a multiple regression model were performed to investigate which demographic, anthropometric, and subjective and objective sleep dimensions were associated with and predicted dimensions of OSA. Results: Higher apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) scores were associated with higher BMI, higher daytime sleepiness, a higher respiratory disturbance index, and higher snoring. Compared to individuals with mild to moderate OSA, individuals with severe OSA had a higher BMI, a higher respiratory disturbance index (RDI) and a higher snoring index, while subjective sleep quality and daytime sleepiness did not differ. Results from the multiple regression analysis showed that an objectively shorter sleep duration, more N2 sleep, and a higher RDI predicted AHI scores. Conclusion: The pattern of results suggests that blending demographic, anthropometric, and subjective/objective sleep- and breathing-related data enabled more effective discrimination of individuals at higher risk for OSA. The results are of practical and clinical importance: demographic, anthropometric, and breathing-related issues derived from self-rating scales provide a quick and reliable identification of individuals at risk of OSA; objective assessments provide further certainty and reliability.

Background and Aim: Acupuncture is one of the most common methods of complementary medicine. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation on sleep quality in the patients with chronic insomnia. Materials and Methods: This study was a single-blind clinical trial in which 40 patients with chronic insomnia were randomly placed into intervention (TEAS) and control (sham TEAS) groups. The acupuncture points including SP6, HT7 and LI4 were selected according to the medical guideline of traditional Chinese medicine. The stimulation was performed for 8 sessions, twice a week for one month. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and actigraphy were used to evaluate the patients' sleep quality before and after intervention. Results: Results showed no significant differences in the mean scores of PSQI between the two groups before and after the intervention (p>0.05). In regard to the objective characteristics of sleep quality, total sleep time in the intervention group significantly increased (p=0.015). These alterations were not significant in the sham TEAS group (p=0.502). Conclusions:The results showed that TEAS can be effective in increasing the total sleep time in the patients with chronic insomnia disorder and this effect can be detectable by a monitoring instrument such as actigraphy.

The data prepared here had been originally collected for a study project entitled ‘Breathing pattern analysis in insomnia suffers’. This data describes the information of 82 individuals; participating 41 normal individuals and 41 insomnia suffers with tow phenotype included 30 sleep state misperception and 11 psychophysiological suffers. The data presents 8 hours of respiratory signals included flow pressure, flow temperature, Oxygen saturation, Thorax and Abdomen signal in frequency sampling 256, 32, 32, 32, 4 Hz respectively. It includes breathing features and sleep profiles in segments of 30s for each individuals. In addition, the full demographic and objective specifications was attached.

Background: While there is sufficient evidence that children and adolescents who stutter reported more impaired sleep compared to children and adolescents who did not stutter, findings among adults who stutter (AWS) were scarce. Furthermore, stuttering is associated with issues related to verbal communication in a social context. As such, it was conceivable that AWS reported higher scores for social anxiety, compared to adults who do not stutter (AWNS). In the present study, we tested whether AWS reported higher sleep complaints compared to AWNS. We further tested whether scores for social anxiety and stuttering independently predicted sleep disturbances. Methods: A total of 110 AWS (mean age; 28.25 years, 27.30% females) and 162 AWNS (mean age; 29.40 years, 51.20% females) completed a series of self-rating questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, sleep disturbances and social anxiety. Adults with stuttering further completed a questionnaire on stuttering. Results: Compared to AWNS, AWS reported a shorter sleep duration, a lower sleep efficiency, higher scores for drug use in terms of sleep-promoting medications (significant p-values and medium effect sizes), and an overall higher PSQI score (significant p-values and large effect size), when controlling for age and social anxiety. Next, while p-values were always significant for subjective sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and daytime functioning, when controlling for age and social anxiety, their effect sizes were trivial or small. For sleep latency, the p-value was not significant and the effect size was trivial. Among AWS, higher scores for stuttering and older age, but not social anxiety, predicted higher sleep disturbances. The association between higher sleep disturbances and higher stuttering severity was greatest among those AWS with highest scores for social anxiety. Conclusions: When compared to AWNS, AWS self-reported higher sleep disturbances, which were associated with older age, and higher scores for stuttering severity, but not with social anxiety. Adults who stutter might be routinely asked for their sleep quality.

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Background: Clinical audit (CA) is a standard method for improving the quality of health service. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the CA status of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) clinical services at the sleep disorders research center of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), Iran. Methods: The current research was conducted on 91 patients with OSA records in 2019 - 2020. The CA steps were performed, and the data extracted from the checklist were described using SPSS software version 16. Results: The age average of the patients was 50.10 (standard deviation = 13.16), ranging from 16 to 76 years. The services were provided to all patients (100%) based on indicators such as training in a healthy lifestyle related to OSA (weight control, not drinking alcohol, and sleep health behaviors) and appropriate prescribing of medications and devices, including continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP). Follow-up on prescribing CPAP and BiPAP devices, informing patients about the frequency of possible surgeries, and follow-up treatment were weak indicators and did not follow the standards. Conclusions: Based on the results, the treatment follow-up indicators of OSA patients are not in compliance with the standards, and attention must be paid to these indicators in providing clinical services to OSA patients in western Iran.

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