Objective and Subjective Sleep Disturbances in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

Objective. To assess objective and subjective evidence of sleep disturbances in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to examine correlations between parameters of inflammatory activity and sleep pathology. Methods. Nineteen RA patients and 19 age‐matched healthy control subjects underwent all‐night polysomnography on 2 consecutive nights. RA patients were also evaluated for daytime sleepiness by mean sleep latency test and responded to a self‐report questionnaire on their first night. Results. Whereas normal sleep architecture is conserved in RA, we confirmed former findings of severe sleep fragmentation and an enhanced presence of primary sleep disorders. No correlation exists between RA activity and the sleep disorders. Subjective assessment was not consistent with the objective evidence of sleep disruption, unlike the findings in patients with fibrositis. Conclusion. Sleep is severly disturbed in patients with RA, regardless of the inflammatory disease activity. the specificity of the sleep disorders assessed needs confirmation, as does specific sleep therapy for these patients.

Pain as a mediator of sleep problems in arthritis and other chronic conditions

“…There is growing evidence that sleep is affected as a consequence of physical health, with poor health precipitating or contributing to existing sleep difficulties (7)(8)(9)(10). Arthritis has been found to be associated with sleep problems in a number of studies, although these studies have mainly been conducted on small patient populations and have tended to focus on inflammatory forms of the disease (8,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21).…”

The contributions of disease activity, sleep patterns, and depression to fatigue in systemic lupus erythematosus

“…Sleep fragmentation is exhibited in several types of rheumatic diseases (10)(11)(12)(13)(14), and can be correlated with disease symptoms and levels of fatigue (10)(11)(12)(13). Given the degree to which fatigue is a problem for people with SLE, sleep is likely also to be a problem.…”

Investigation into sleep and quality of life in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

“…This situation can be provoked by the conditions of the living environment of the patient or changes in the environment as well as pain resulting from the disease and inappropriate positioning. Likewise, it was reported in many researches that RA patients had difficulties in falling asleep (Hirsch et al, 1994;Solak et al, 2009;Kiper & Sunal, 2009). In our study, Sleep Duration (Component 3), Habitual Sleep Activity (Component 4) and Sleep Disorder (Component 5) sub-components were determined to be at bad level.…”

“…International Journal of Human Sciences, 11(1), 457-468. doi: 10.14687/ijhs.v11i1.2706 459 during the sleep pose a bigger problem than the changes in the sleep stages. RA patients get difficulty in falling asleep, wake several times during the night and early in the morning and thus, feel sleepy during the day (Hirsch et al, 1994;Moldofsky et al,1995;Drewes et al, 1999). When the literature was examined, it was seen that there was only a limited number of studies concerning the qualities of life and sleep among RA patients.…”