SLEEP DISTURBANCES IN CLINICALLY STABLE YOUNG ASTHMATIC ADULTS

Background: Although nocturnal asthma is a well documented clinical pr oblem, the effect of asthma on sleep itself and morbidity caused there by have not received adequate attention. It is now recognized that par tial sleep deprivation has a considerable effect on human functions. O bjectives: With this in view, we conducted a study to determine the oc currence and nature of sleep disturbances in a homogeneous group of pa tients with clinically stable bronchial asthma in their home environme nt. Methods: Thirty young adult unmarried university students with cli nically stable bronchial asthma attending the Institute's outpatient d epartment were asked to respond to an asthma/sleep questionnaire and w ere requested to maintain a sleep diary for 1 week. A similar group of 30 unmarried healthy young university students also underwent an iden tical workup and functioned as controls. Ten subjects from each group maintained a peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) diary.Results: The quest ionnaire revealed that 28 (93%) of the 30 patients experienced sleep d isturbances (average 2.7/subject) as compared to 10 (33%) subjects in the control group (average 0.4/subject). The sleep diary confirmed tha t 27 (90%) of the 30 patients had sleep disturbances (2.4/subject/wk) as compared with 8 (27%) subjects (0.3/subject/wk) in the control grou p. These differences were statistically significant. Daytime sleepines s and tiredness (63%) and difficulty in maintaining sleep (60%) along with early morning awakening (46%) were more frequently seen. The asth matic patients also had a shorter duration of sleep (427 min) as compa red with the controls (474 min). These findings were significantly dif ferent from the control group. Conclusions: Increased daytime sleepine ss and tiredness was perhaps a reflection of the poor quality of sleep experienced by patients with clinically stable asthma. This consequen tly may lead to impaired daytime performance which can have a potentia lly serious effect for the patient and society.