Sleep Medicine

For people with clinically diagnosed “nightmare disorder,” learning to redirect disturbing dreams to more positive ones is usually the return ticket to sleep. 

But for nearly one-third of people, that method – called imagery rehearsal therapy – isn’t effective.

A new study shows that listening to positive sounds while sleeping reduces the frequency of nightmares.

“This is a promising development. It does appear that adding a well-timed sound during REM sleep augments the effect of image rehearsal therapy ... which is a standard and perhaps one of the most effective nonpharmacologic therapies at this time,” said Timothy Morgenthaler, MD, in an interview with CNN. 

Dr. Morgenthaler, who was not involved in this latest study, is lead author of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s current guidelines on nightmares.

For the new research, nightmares were defined as “the experience of strong negative emotions occurring usually during REM sleep. They involve images and thoughts of aggression, interpersonal conflict, and failure, and emotions like fear, anger, and sadness.” Nightmare disorder is characterized as having such dreams so frequently that they cause “significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” 

Left untreated, nightmare disorder can persist for decades, the authors said.

The study, conducted in Switzerland, enrolled 36 participants with nightmare disorder. All 36 participated in a daytime lesson of imagery rehearsal therapy that taught them to redirect their nightmares to positive dreams. Participants were taught to recall a nightmare, change the negative story line toward a more positive one, and then rehearse the so-called “rewritten dream” during the day.

Half of the participants also had a special sound played while they practiced reimagining their new positive dreams. At night for the following 2 weeks while they slept, the sound was played during their REM cycles.

Those who heard the sound reported significantly fewer nightmares.

“This difference displayed a medium to large effect size and was sustainable at the 3-month follow-up,” the authors reported.

They did note that both groups showed improvement, likely because the lesson to reimagine nightmares into positive dreams is known to be effective. However, the authors allowed that other factors may have contributed in ways their study design could not control.

“The result should be replicated,” Dr. Morgenthaler said. “But I was a bit excited at this new possibility.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

For people with clinically diagnosed “nightmare disorder,” learning to redirect disturbing dreams to more positive ones is usually the return ticket to sleep. 

But for nearly one-third of people, that method – called imagery rehearsal therapy – isn’t effective.

A new study shows that listening to positive sounds while sleeping reduces the frequency of nightmares.

“This is a promising development. It does appear that adding a well-timed sound during REM sleep augments the effect of image rehearsal therapy ... which is a standard and perhaps one of the most effective nonpharmacologic therapies at this time,” said Timothy Morgenthaler, MD, in an interview with CNN. 

Dr. Morgenthaler, who was not involved in this latest study, is lead author of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s current guidelines on nightmares.

For the new research, nightmares were defined as “the experience of strong negative emotions occurring usually during REM sleep. They involve images and thoughts of aggression, interpersonal conflict, and failure, and emotions like fear, anger, and sadness.” Nightmare disorder is characterized as having such dreams so frequently that they cause “significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” 

Left untreated, nightmare disorder can persist for decades, the authors said.

The study, conducted in Switzerland, enrolled 36 participants with nightmare disorder. All 36 participated in a daytime lesson of imagery rehearsal therapy that taught them to redirect their nightmares to positive dreams. Participants were taught to recall a nightmare, change the negative story line toward a more positive one, and then rehearse the so-called “rewritten dream” during the day.

Half of the participants also had a special sound played while they practiced reimagining their new positive dreams. At night for the following 2 weeks while they slept, the sound was played during their REM cycles.

Those who heard the sound reported significantly fewer nightmares.

“This difference displayed a medium to large effect size and was sustainable at the 3-month follow-up,” the authors reported.

They did note that both groups showed improvement, likely because the lesson to reimagine nightmares into positive dreams is known to be effective. However, the authors allowed that other factors may have contributed in ways their study design could not control.

“The result should be replicated,” Dr. Morgenthaler said. “But I was a bit excited at this new possibility.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

For people with clinically diagnosed “nightmare disorder,” learning to redirect disturbing dreams to more positive ones is usually the return ticket to sleep. 

But for nearly one-third of people, that method – called imagery rehearsal therapy – isn’t effective.

A new study shows that listening to positive sounds while sleeping reduces the frequency of nightmares.

“This is a promising development. It does appear that adding a well-timed sound during REM sleep augments the effect of image rehearsal therapy ... which is a standard and perhaps one of the most effective nonpharmacologic therapies at this time,” said Timothy Morgenthaler, MD, in an interview with CNN. 

Dr. Morgenthaler, who was not involved in this latest study, is lead author of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s current guidelines on nightmares.

For the new research, nightmares were defined as “the experience of strong negative emotions occurring usually during REM sleep. They involve images and thoughts of aggression, interpersonal conflict, and failure, and emotions like fear, anger, and sadness.” Nightmare disorder is characterized as having such dreams so frequently that they cause “significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” 

Left untreated, nightmare disorder can persist for decades, the authors said.

The study, conducted in Switzerland, enrolled 36 participants with nightmare disorder. All 36 participated in a daytime lesson of imagery rehearsal therapy that taught them to redirect their nightmares to positive dreams. Participants were taught to recall a nightmare, change the negative story line toward a more positive one, and then rehearse the so-called “rewritten dream” during the day.

Half of the participants also had a special sound played while they practiced reimagining their new positive dreams. At night for the following 2 weeks while they slept, the sound was played during their REM cycles.

Those who heard the sound reported significantly fewer nightmares.

“This difference displayed a medium to large effect size and was sustainable at the 3-month follow-up,” the authors reported.

They did note that both groups showed improvement, likely because the lesson to reimagine nightmares into positive dreams is known to be effective. However, the authors allowed that other factors may have contributed in ways their study design could not control.

“The result should be replicated,” Dr. Morgenthaler said. “But I was a bit excited at this new possibility.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

Undiagnosed atrial fibrillation (AFib) was significantly more common among adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), compared with controls, based on data from 303 individuals.

OSA has become a common chronic disease, and cardiovascular diseases including AFib also are known independent risk factors associated with OSA, Anna Hojager, MD, of Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark, and colleagues wrote. Previous studies have shown a significant increase in AFib risk in OSA patients with severe disease, but the prevalence of undiagnosed AFib in OSA patients has not been explored.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, the researchers enrolled 238 adults with severe OSA (based on apnea-hypopnea index of 15 or higher) and 65 with mild or no OSA (based on an AHI of less than 15). The mean AHI across all participants was 34.2, and ranged from 0.2 to 115.8.

Participants underwent heart rhythm monitoring using a home system or standard ECG for 7 days; they were instructed to carry the device at all times except when showering or sweating heavily. The primary outcome was the detection of AFib, defined as at least one period of 30 seconds or longer with an irregular heart rhythm but without detectable evidence of another diagnosis. Sleep was assessed for one night using a portable sleep monitoring device. All participants were examined at baseline and measured for blood pressure, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and ECG.

Overall, AFib occurred in 21 patients with moderate to severe OSA and 1 patient with mild/no OSA (8.8% vs. 1.5%, P = .045). The majority of patients across both groups had hypertension (66%) and dyslipidemia (77.6%), but the severe OSA group was more likely to be dysregulated and to have unknown prediabetes. Participants who were deemed candidates for anticoagulation therapy were referred for additional treatment. None of the 22 total patients with AFib had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and 68.2% had normal ejection fraction and ventricle function.

The researchers noted that no guidelines currently exist for systematic opportunistic screening for comorbidities in OSA patients, although the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends patient education as part of a multidisciplinary chronic disease management strategy. The high prevalence of AFib in OSA patients, as seen in the current study, “might warrant a recommendation of screening for paroxysmal [AFib] and could be valuable in the management of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in patients with OSA,” they wrote.

The study findings were limited by several factors including the observational design and absence of polysomnography to assess OSA, the researchers noted. However, the study has the highest known prevalence of silent AFib in patients with moderate to severe OSA, and supports the value of screening and management for known comorbidities of OSA.

The study received no outside funding. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
 

Undiagnosed atrial fibrillation (AFib) was significantly more common among adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), compared with controls, based on data from 303 individuals.

OSA has become a common chronic disease, and cardiovascular diseases including AFib also are known independent risk factors associated with OSA, Anna Hojager, MD, of Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark, and colleagues wrote. Previous studies have shown a significant increase in AFib risk in OSA patients with severe disease, but the prevalence of undiagnosed AFib in OSA patients has not been explored.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, the researchers enrolled 238 adults with severe OSA (based on apnea-hypopnea index of 15 or higher) and 65 with mild or no OSA (based on an AHI of less than 15). The mean AHI across all participants was 34.2, and ranged from 0.2 to 115.8.

Participants underwent heart rhythm monitoring using a home system or standard ECG for 7 days; they were instructed to carry the device at all times except when showering or sweating heavily. The primary outcome was the detection of AFib, defined as at least one period of 30 seconds or longer with an irregular heart rhythm but without detectable evidence of another diagnosis. Sleep was assessed for one night using a portable sleep monitoring device. All participants were examined at baseline and measured for blood pressure, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and ECG.

Overall, AFib occurred in 21 patients with moderate to severe OSA and 1 patient with mild/no OSA (8.8% vs. 1.5%, P = .045). The majority of patients across both groups had hypertension (66%) and dyslipidemia (77.6%), but the severe OSA group was more likely to be dysregulated and to have unknown prediabetes. Participants who were deemed candidates for anticoagulation therapy were referred for additional treatment. None of the 22 total patients with AFib had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and 68.2% had normal ejection fraction and ventricle function.

The researchers noted that no guidelines currently exist for systematic opportunistic screening for comorbidities in OSA patients, although the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends patient education as part of a multidisciplinary chronic disease management strategy. The high prevalence of AFib in OSA patients, as seen in the current study, “might warrant a recommendation of screening for paroxysmal [AFib] and could be valuable in the management of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in patients with OSA,” they wrote.

The study findings were limited by several factors including the observational design and absence of polysomnography to assess OSA, the researchers noted. However, the study has the highest known prevalence of silent AFib in patients with moderate to severe OSA, and supports the value of screening and management for known comorbidities of OSA.

The study received no outside funding. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
 

Undiagnosed atrial fibrillation (AFib) was significantly more common among adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), compared with controls, based on data from 303 individuals.

OSA has become a common chronic disease, and cardiovascular diseases including AFib also are known independent risk factors associated with OSA, Anna Hojager, MD, of Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark, and colleagues wrote. Previous studies have shown a significant increase in AFib risk in OSA patients with severe disease, but the prevalence of undiagnosed AFib in OSA patients has not been explored.

In a study published in Sleep Medicine, the researchers enrolled 238 adults with severe OSA (based on apnea-hypopnea index of 15 or higher) and 65 with mild or no OSA (based on an AHI of less than 15). The mean AHI across all participants was 34.2, and ranged from 0.2 to 115.8.

Participants underwent heart rhythm monitoring using a home system or standard ECG for 7 days; they were instructed to carry the device at all times except when showering or sweating heavily. The primary outcome was the detection of AFib, defined as at least one period of 30 seconds or longer with an irregular heart rhythm but without detectable evidence of another diagnosis. Sleep was assessed for one night using a portable sleep monitoring device. All participants were examined at baseline and measured for blood pressure, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and ECG.

Overall, AFib occurred in 21 patients with moderate to severe OSA and 1 patient with mild/no OSA (8.8% vs. 1.5%, P = .045). The majority of patients across both groups had hypertension (66%) and dyslipidemia (77.6%), but the severe OSA group was more likely to be dysregulated and to have unknown prediabetes. Participants who were deemed candidates for anticoagulation therapy were referred for additional treatment. None of the 22 total patients with AFib had heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and 68.2% had normal ejection fraction and ventricle function.

The researchers noted that no guidelines currently exist for systematic opportunistic screening for comorbidities in OSA patients, although the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends patient education as part of a multidisciplinary chronic disease management strategy. The high prevalence of AFib in OSA patients, as seen in the current study, “might warrant a recommendation of screening for paroxysmal [AFib] and could be valuable in the management of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors in patients with OSA,” they wrote.

The study findings were limited by several factors including the observational design and absence of polysomnography to assess OSA, the researchers noted. However, the study has the highest known prevalence of silent AFib in patients with moderate to severe OSA, and supports the value of screening and management for known comorbidities of OSA.

The study received no outside funding. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
 

Who doesn’t love data, especially their own? With that thought in mind, over the years I have owned several activity trackers, including at least two Fitbits, and I frequently check my iPhone to see how far I’ve walked or how many steps I have taken. My most recent acquisition is an Oura (smart ring, third generation), which includes my first sleep tracker.

Sleep trackers are not unique to the Oura Ring; they are included on many of the newer activity trackers and smart watches, but the design and breakdown of daily sleep, activity, and readiness scores are hallmarks of Oura Rings. 

The ring generates data for different phases of sleep, movements, oxygen saturation, disturbances in breathing, heart rate, and heart rate variability. I began to wonder how useful this information would be clinically and whether it might be helpful in either the diagnosis or treatment of sleep disorders.

David Neubauer, MD, is a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. “Sleep tracking devices are more than just toys but less than medical devices. They do have clinical utility and might show findings that warrant further medical workup,” Dr. Neubauer said. “It is impressive that these devices estimate sleep as well as they do, but there is a problem with how they divide sleep stages that can lead people to believe their sleep is worse than it really is.”

For more than 50 years, he explained, sleep researchers and clinicians have categorized sleep as non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stages 1-4 and REM sleep. More recently, sleep was reorganized to N1, N2, and N3 (which combines the older stages 3 and 4, representing “deep sleep” or “slow wave sleep”) and REM sleep. We normally spend more time in N2 than the other stages. However, the device companies often categorize their sleep estimates as “light sleep,” “deep sleep,” or “REM.” With “light sleep,” they are lumping together N1 and N2 sleep, and this is misleading, said Dr. Neubauer. “Understandably, people often think that there is something wrong if their tracker reports they are spending a lot of time in light sleep, when actually their sleep may be entirely normal.”
 

Sleep tracker validity

A study by Massimiliano de Zambotti, PhD, and colleagues, “The Sleep of the Ring: Comparison of the ŌURA Sleep Tracker Against Polysomnography”, looked at sleep patterns of 41 adolescents and young adults and concluded that the second-generation tracker was accurate in terms of total sleep but underestimated time spent in N3 stage sleep by approximately 20 minutes while overestimating time spent in REM sleep by 17 minutes. They concluded that the ring had potential to be clinically useful but that further studies and validation were needed. 

A larger study of the newest, third-generation Oura tracker, conducted by Altini and Kinnunen at Oura Health, found that the added sensors with the newer-generation ring led to improved accuracy, but they noted that the study was done with a healthy population and might not generalize to clinical populations. 

Fernando Goes, MD, and Matthew Reid, PhD, both at Johns Hopkins, are working on a multicenter study using the Oura Ring and the mindLAMP app to look at the impact of sleep on mood in people with mood disorders as well as healthy controls. Dr. Reid said that “validation of sleep stages takes a hit when the ring is used in people with insomnia. We find it useful for total sleep time, but when you look at sleep architecture, the concordance is only 60%. And oxygen saturation measures are less accurate in people with dark skin.”
 

Clinical uses for sleep trackers

More accurate information might prove reassuring to patients. Dr. Goes added, “One use, for example, might be to help patients to limit or come off of long-term hypnotics with a more benign intervention that incorporates passive monitoring such as that in the Oura Ring. Some patients worry excessively about not being able to sleep, and sleep monitoring data can be helpful to reduce some of these concerns so patients can focus on safer interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.” Dr. Reid believes that wearable trackers have potential usefulness in monitoring sleep in patients with insomnia. “In insomnia, sleep state misperception is common. They are hyper-aroused, and they perceive that they are awake when in fact they are sleeping.”

Dr. Goes mentioned another use for sleep trackers in clinical settings: “In our inpatient units, the nurses open the door to look in on patients every hour to monitor and document if they are sleeping. If they look in and the patient isn’t moving, they will ask the patient to raise their hand, which of course is not going to help someone to fall back asleep.” Wearable devices might provide data on sleep without the risk of waking patients every hour through the night.
 

Not medical devices

However, Dr. Neubauer emphasized that current sleep trackers are not medical devices, saying “they may be measuring the same parameters that are measured with medical devices, for example pulse oximetry or sleep states, but there’s no simple answer yet to the question of whether the devices provide reliable data for clinical decision-making.” 

Dr. Neubauer is skeptical about the accuracy of some of the measures the device provides. “I would not use the information from a consumer device to rule out obstructive sleep apnea based on good oxygen saturation numbers. So much depends on the history – snoring, gasping awakenings, reports from bed partners, and daytime sleepiness. These devices do not measure respiratory effort or nasal airflow as sleep studies do. But big drops in oxygen saturation from a consumer device certainly warrant attention for further evaluation.” Dr. Neubauer also noted that the parameters on sleep trackers do not differentiate between central or obstructive sleep apnea and that insurers won’t pay for continuous positive airway pressure to treat sleep apnea without a sleep study. 

I enjoy looking at the data, even knowing that they are not entirely accurate. As future renditions of these multisensor devices become more specific and sensitive, I predict that they will take on a role in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, and we may find more clinical uses for these devices. For now, I’m off to get more exercise, at the suggestion of my tracker!

Dinah Miller, MD, is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Who doesn’t love data, especially their own? With that thought in mind, over the years I have owned several activity trackers, including at least two Fitbits, and I frequently check my iPhone to see how far I’ve walked or how many steps I have taken. My most recent acquisition is an Oura (smart ring, third generation), which includes my first sleep tracker.

Sleep trackers are not unique to the Oura Ring; they are included on many of the newer activity trackers and smart watches, but the design and breakdown of daily sleep, activity, and readiness scores are hallmarks of Oura Rings. 

The ring generates data for different phases of sleep, movements, oxygen saturation, disturbances in breathing, heart rate, and heart rate variability. I began to wonder how useful this information would be clinically and whether it might be helpful in either the diagnosis or treatment of sleep disorders.

David Neubauer, MD, is a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. “Sleep tracking devices are more than just toys but less than medical devices. They do have clinical utility and might show findings that warrant further medical workup,” Dr. Neubauer said. “It is impressive that these devices estimate sleep as well as they do, but there is a problem with how they divide sleep stages that can lead people to believe their sleep is worse than it really is.”

For more than 50 years, he explained, sleep researchers and clinicians have categorized sleep as non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stages 1-4 and REM sleep. More recently, sleep was reorganized to N1, N2, and N3 (which combines the older stages 3 and 4, representing “deep sleep” or “slow wave sleep”) and REM sleep. We normally spend more time in N2 than the other stages. However, the device companies often categorize their sleep estimates as “light sleep,” “deep sleep,” or “REM.” With “light sleep,” they are lumping together N1 and N2 sleep, and this is misleading, said Dr. Neubauer. “Understandably, people often think that there is something wrong if their tracker reports they are spending a lot of time in light sleep, when actually their sleep may be entirely normal.”
 

Sleep tracker validity

A study by Massimiliano de Zambotti, PhD, and colleagues, “The Sleep of the Ring: Comparison of the ŌURA Sleep Tracker Against Polysomnography”, looked at sleep patterns of 41 adolescents and young adults and concluded that the second-generation tracker was accurate in terms of total sleep but underestimated time spent in N3 stage sleep by approximately 20 minutes while overestimating time spent in REM sleep by 17 minutes. They concluded that the ring had potential to be clinically useful but that further studies and validation were needed. 

A larger study of the newest, third-generation Oura tracker, conducted by Altini and Kinnunen at Oura Health, found that the added sensors with the newer-generation ring led to improved accuracy, but they noted that the study was done with a healthy population and might not generalize to clinical populations. 

Fernando Goes, MD, and Matthew Reid, PhD, both at Johns Hopkins, are working on a multicenter study using the Oura Ring and the mindLAMP app to look at the impact of sleep on mood in people with mood disorders as well as healthy controls. Dr. Reid said that “validation of sleep stages takes a hit when the ring is used in people with insomnia. We find it useful for total sleep time, but when you look at sleep architecture, the concordance is only 60%. And oxygen saturation measures are less accurate in people with dark skin.”
 

Clinical uses for sleep trackers

More accurate information might prove reassuring to patients. Dr. Goes added, “One use, for example, might be to help patients to limit or come off of long-term hypnotics with a more benign intervention that incorporates passive monitoring such as that in the Oura Ring. Some patients worry excessively about not being able to sleep, and sleep monitoring data can be helpful to reduce some of these concerns so patients can focus on safer interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.” Dr. Reid believes that wearable trackers have potential usefulness in monitoring sleep in patients with insomnia. “In insomnia, sleep state misperception is common. They are hyper-aroused, and they perceive that they are awake when in fact they are sleeping.”

Dr. Goes mentioned another use for sleep trackers in clinical settings: “In our inpatient units, the nurses open the door to look in on patients every hour to monitor and document if they are sleeping. If they look in and the patient isn’t moving, they will ask the patient to raise their hand, which of course is not going to help someone to fall back asleep.” Wearable devices might provide data on sleep without the risk of waking patients every hour through the night.
 

Not medical devices

However, Dr. Neubauer emphasized that current sleep trackers are not medical devices, saying “they may be measuring the same parameters that are measured with medical devices, for example pulse oximetry or sleep states, but there’s no simple answer yet to the question of whether the devices provide reliable data for clinical decision-making.” 

Dr. Neubauer is skeptical about the accuracy of some of the measures the device provides. “I would not use the information from a consumer device to rule out obstructive sleep apnea based on good oxygen saturation numbers. So much depends on the history – snoring, gasping awakenings, reports from bed partners, and daytime sleepiness. These devices do not measure respiratory effort or nasal airflow as sleep studies do. But big drops in oxygen saturation from a consumer device certainly warrant attention for further evaluation.” Dr. Neubauer also noted that the parameters on sleep trackers do not differentiate between central or obstructive sleep apnea and that insurers won’t pay for continuous positive airway pressure to treat sleep apnea without a sleep study. 

I enjoy looking at the data, even knowing that they are not entirely accurate. As future renditions of these multisensor devices become more specific and sensitive, I predict that they will take on a role in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, and we may find more clinical uses for these devices. For now, I’m off to get more exercise, at the suggestion of my tracker!

Dinah Miller, MD, is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Who doesn’t love data, especially their own? With that thought in mind, over the years I have owned several activity trackers, including at least two Fitbits, and I frequently check my iPhone to see how far I’ve walked or how many steps I have taken. My most recent acquisition is an Oura (smart ring, third generation), which includes my first sleep tracker.

Sleep trackers are not unique to the Oura Ring; they are included on many of the newer activity trackers and smart watches, but the design and breakdown of daily sleep, activity, and readiness scores are hallmarks of Oura Rings. 

The ring generates data for different phases of sleep, movements, oxygen saturation, disturbances in breathing, heart rate, and heart rate variability. I began to wonder how useful this information would be clinically and whether it might be helpful in either the diagnosis or treatment of sleep disorders.

David Neubauer, MD, is a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. “Sleep tracking devices are more than just toys but less than medical devices. They do have clinical utility and might show findings that warrant further medical workup,” Dr. Neubauer said. “It is impressive that these devices estimate sleep as well as they do, but there is a problem with how they divide sleep stages that can lead people to believe their sleep is worse than it really is.”

For more than 50 years, he explained, sleep researchers and clinicians have categorized sleep as non–rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep stages 1-4 and REM sleep. More recently, sleep was reorganized to N1, N2, and N3 (which combines the older stages 3 and 4, representing “deep sleep” or “slow wave sleep”) and REM sleep. We normally spend more time in N2 than the other stages. However, the device companies often categorize their sleep estimates as “light sleep,” “deep sleep,” or “REM.” With “light sleep,” they are lumping together N1 and N2 sleep, and this is misleading, said Dr. Neubauer. “Understandably, people often think that there is something wrong if their tracker reports they are spending a lot of time in light sleep, when actually their sleep may be entirely normal.”
 

Sleep tracker validity

A study by Massimiliano de Zambotti, PhD, and colleagues, “The Sleep of the Ring: Comparison of the ŌURA Sleep Tracker Against Polysomnography”, looked at sleep patterns of 41 adolescents and young adults and concluded that the second-generation tracker was accurate in terms of total sleep but underestimated time spent in N3 stage sleep by approximately 20 minutes while overestimating time spent in REM sleep by 17 minutes. They concluded that the ring had potential to be clinically useful but that further studies and validation were needed. 

A larger study of the newest, third-generation Oura tracker, conducted by Altini and Kinnunen at Oura Health, found that the added sensors with the newer-generation ring led to improved accuracy, but they noted that the study was done with a healthy population and might not generalize to clinical populations. 

Fernando Goes, MD, and Matthew Reid, PhD, both at Johns Hopkins, are working on a multicenter study using the Oura Ring and the mindLAMP app to look at the impact of sleep on mood in people with mood disorders as well as healthy controls. Dr. Reid said that “validation of sleep stages takes a hit when the ring is used in people with insomnia. We find it useful for total sleep time, but when you look at sleep architecture, the concordance is only 60%. And oxygen saturation measures are less accurate in people with dark skin.”
 

Clinical uses for sleep trackers

More accurate information might prove reassuring to patients. Dr. Goes added, “One use, for example, might be to help patients to limit or come off of long-term hypnotics with a more benign intervention that incorporates passive monitoring such as that in the Oura Ring. Some patients worry excessively about not being able to sleep, and sleep monitoring data can be helpful to reduce some of these concerns so patients can focus on safer interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.” Dr. Reid believes that wearable trackers have potential usefulness in monitoring sleep in patients with insomnia. “In insomnia, sleep state misperception is common. They are hyper-aroused, and they perceive that they are awake when in fact they are sleeping.”

Dr. Goes mentioned another use for sleep trackers in clinical settings: “In our inpatient units, the nurses open the door to look in on patients every hour to monitor and document if they are sleeping. If they look in and the patient isn’t moving, they will ask the patient to raise their hand, which of course is not going to help someone to fall back asleep.” Wearable devices might provide data on sleep without the risk of waking patients every hour through the night.
 

Not medical devices

However, Dr. Neubauer emphasized that current sleep trackers are not medical devices, saying “they may be measuring the same parameters that are measured with medical devices, for example pulse oximetry or sleep states, but there’s no simple answer yet to the question of whether the devices provide reliable data for clinical decision-making.” 

Dr. Neubauer is skeptical about the accuracy of some of the measures the device provides. “I would not use the information from a consumer device to rule out obstructive sleep apnea based on good oxygen saturation numbers. So much depends on the history – snoring, gasping awakenings, reports from bed partners, and daytime sleepiness. These devices do not measure respiratory effort or nasal airflow as sleep studies do. But big drops in oxygen saturation from a consumer device certainly warrant attention for further evaluation.” Dr. Neubauer also noted that the parameters on sleep trackers do not differentiate between central or obstructive sleep apnea and that insurers won’t pay for continuous positive airway pressure to treat sleep apnea without a sleep study. 

I enjoy looking at the data, even knowing that they are not entirely accurate. As future renditions of these multisensor devices become more specific and sensitive, I predict that they will take on a role in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, and we may find more clinical uses for these devices. For now, I’m off to get more exercise, at the suggestion of my tracker!

Dinah Miller, MD, is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

While trials of various interventions for obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia were effective, there was a strong suggestion that tailoring them according to the race/gender of the target populations strengthens engagement and improvements, according to a presentation by Dayna A. Johnson, PhD, MPH, at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST).

Dr. Johnson, assistant professor at Emory University in Atlanta, stated that determinants of sleep disparities are multifactorial across the lifespan, from in utero to aging, but it was also important to focus on social determinants of poor sleep.

The complexity of factors, she said, calls for multilevel interventions beyond screening and treatment. Racism and discrimination come into play, especially with regard to anxiety and stress, In addition, neighborhood factors including safety, noise and light pollution, ventilation, and thermal comfort come into play.

Dr. Johnson cited the example of parents who work multiple jobs to provide for their families: “Minimum wage is not a livable wage, and parents may not be available to ensure that children have consistent bedtimes.” Interventions, she added, may have to be at the neighborhood level, including placing sleep specialists in the local neighborhood “where the need is.” Cleaning up a neighborhood reduces crime and overall health, while light shielding in public housing can lower light pollution.

Observing that African Americans have higher rates of obstructive sleep apnea, Dr. Johnson and colleagues designed a screening tool specifically for African Americans with five prediction models with increasing levels of factor measurements (from 4 to 10). The prediction accuracy across the models ascended in lockstep with the number of measures from 74.0% to 76.1%, with the simplest model including only age, body mass index, male sex, and snoring. The latter model added witnessed apneas, high depressive symptoms, two measures of waist and neck size, and sleepiness. Dr. Johnson pointed out that accuracy for well-established predictive models is notably lower: STOP-Bang score ranges from 56% to 66%; NoSAS ranges from 58% to 66% and the HCHS prediction model accuracy is 70%. Dr. Johnson said that a Latino model they developed was more accurate than the traditional models, but not as accurate as their model for African Americans.

Turning to specific interventions, and underscoring higher levels of stress and anxiety among African American and Hispanic populations, Dr. Johnson cited MINDS (Mindfulness Intervention to Improve Sleep and Reduce Diabetes Risk Among a Diverse Sample in Atlanta), her study at Emory University of mindfulness meditation. Although prior studies have confirmed sleep benefits of mindfulness meditation, studies tailored for African American or Hispanic populations have been lacking.

The MINDS pilot study investigators enrolled 17 individuals (mostly women, with a mixture of racial and ethnic groups comprising Black, White, Asian and Hispanic patients) with poor sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Most patients, Dr. Johnson said, were overweight. Because of COVID restrictions on clinic visits, the diabetes portion of the study was dropped. All participants received at least 3 days of instruction on mindfulness meditation, on dealing with stress and anxiety, and on optimum sleep health practices. While PSQI scores higher than 5 are considered to indicate poor sleep quality, the mean PSQI score at study outset in MINDS was 9.2, she stated.

After 30 days of the intervention, stress (on a perceived stress scale) was improved, as were PSQI scores and actigraphy measures of sleep duration, efficiency and wakefulness after sleep onset, Dr. Johnson reported. “Participants found the mindfulness app to be acceptable and appropriate, and to reduce time to falling asleep,” Dr. Johnson said.

Qualitative data gathered post intervention from four focus groups (two to six participants in each; 1-1.5 hours in length), revealed general acceptability of the MINDS app. It showed also that among those with 50% or more adherence to the intervention, time to falling asleep was reduced, as were sleep awakenings at night. The most striking finding, Dr. Johnson said, was that individuals from among racial/ethnic minorities expressed appreciation of the diversity of the meditation instructors, and said that they preferred instruction from a person of their own race and sex. Findings would be even more striking with a larger sample size, Dr. Johnson speculated.

Citing TASHE (Tailored Approach to Sleep Health Education), a further observational study on obstructive sleep apnea knowledge conducted at New York University, Dr. Johnson addressed the fact that current messages are not tailored to race/ethnic minorities with low-to-moderate symptom knowledge. Also, a 3-arm randomized clinical trial of Internet-delivered treatment (Sleep Healthy or SHUTI) with a version revised for Black women (SHUTI-BWHS) showed findings similar to those of other studies cited and suggested: “Tailoring may be necessary to increase uptake and sustainability and to improve sleep among racial/ethnic minorities.”

Dr. Johnson noted, in closing, that Black/African American individuals have higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea than that of their White counterparts and lower rates of screening for treatment.

Dr. Johnson’s research was funded by the National Institutes of Health; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Woodruff Health Sciences Center; Synergy Award; Rollins School of Public Health Dean’s Pilot and Innovation Award; and Georgia Center for Diabetes Translation Research Pilot and Feasibility award program. She reported no relevant conflicts.

While trials of various interventions for obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia were effective, there was a strong suggestion that tailoring them according to the race/gender of the target populations strengthens engagement and improvements, according to a presentation by Dayna A. Johnson, PhD, MPH, at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST).

Dr. Johnson, assistant professor at Emory University in Atlanta, stated that determinants of sleep disparities are multifactorial across the lifespan, from in utero to aging, but it was also important to focus on social determinants of poor sleep.

The complexity of factors, she said, calls for multilevel interventions beyond screening and treatment. Racism and discrimination come into play, especially with regard to anxiety and stress, In addition, neighborhood factors including safety, noise and light pollution, ventilation, and thermal comfort come into play.

Dr. Johnson cited the example of parents who work multiple jobs to provide for their families: “Minimum wage is not a livable wage, and parents may not be available to ensure that children have consistent bedtimes.” Interventions, she added, may have to be at the neighborhood level, including placing sleep specialists in the local neighborhood “where the need is.” Cleaning up a neighborhood reduces crime and overall health, while light shielding in public housing can lower light pollution.

Observing that African Americans have higher rates of obstructive sleep apnea, Dr. Johnson and colleagues designed a screening tool specifically for African Americans with five prediction models with increasing levels of factor measurements (from 4 to 10). The prediction accuracy across the models ascended in lockstep with the number of measures from 74.0% to 76.1%, with the simplest model including only age, body mass index, male sex, and snoring. The latter model added witnessed apneas, high depressive symptoms, two measures of waist and neck size, and sleepiness. Dr. Johnson pointed out that accuracy for well-established predictive models is notably lower: STOP-Bang score ranges from 56% to 66%; NoSAS ranges from 58% to 66% and the HCHS prediction model accuracy is 70%. Dr. Johnson said that a Latino model they developed was more accurate than the traditional models, but not as accurate as their model for African Americans.

Turning to specific interventions, and underscoring higher levels of stress and anxiety among African American and Hispanic populations, Dr. Johnson cited MINDS (Mindfulness Intervention to Improve Sleep and Reduce Diabetes Risk Among a Diverse Sample in Atlanta), her study at Emory University of mindfulness meditation. Although prior studies have confirmed sleep benefits of mindfulness meditation, studies tailored for African American or Hispanic populations have been lacking.

The MINDS pilot study investigators enrolled 17 individuals (mostly women, with a mixture of racial and ethnic groups comprising Black, White, Asian and Hispanic patients) with poor sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Most patients, Dr. Johnson said, were overweight. Because of COVID restrictions on clinic visits, the diabetes portion of the study was dropped. All participants received at least 3 days of instruction on mindfulness meditation, on dealing with stress and anxiety, and on optimum sleep health practices. While PSQI scores higher than 5 are considered to indicate poor sleep quality, the mean PSQI score at study outset in MINDS was 9.2, she stated.

After 30 days of the intervention, stress (on a perceived stress scale) was improved, as were PSQI scores and actigraphy measures of sleep duration, efficiency and wakefulness after sleep onset, Dr. Johnson reported. “Participants found the mindfulness app to be acceptable and appropriate, and to reduce time to falling asleep,” Dr. Johnson said.

Qualitative data gathered post intervention from four focus groups (two to six participants in each; 1-1.5 hours in length), revealed general acceptability of the MINDS app. It showed also that among those with 50% or more adherence to the intervention, time to falling asleep was reduced, as were sleep awakenings at night. The most striking finding, Dr. Johnson said, was that individuals from among racial/ethnic minorities expressed appreciation of the diversity of the meditation instructors, and said that they preferred instruction from a person of their own race and sex. Findings would be even more striking with a larger sample size, Dr. Johnson speculated.

Citing TASHE (Tailored Approach to Sleep Health Education), a further observational study on obstructive sleep apnea knowledge conducted at New York University, Dr. Johnson addressed the fact that current messages are not tailored to race/ethnic minorities with low-to-moderate symptom knowledge. Also, a 3-arm randomized clinical trial of Internet-delivered treatment (Sleep Healthy or SHUTI) with a version revised for Black women (SHUTI-BWHS) showed findings similar to those of other studies cited and suggested: “Tailoring may be necessary to increase uptake and sustainability and to improve sleep among racial/ethnic minorities.”

Dr. Johnson noted, in closing, that Black/African American individuals have higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea than that of their White counterparts and lower rates of screening for treatment.

Dr. Johnson’s research was funded by the National Institutes of Health; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Woodruff Health Sciences Center; Synergy Award; Rollins School of Public Health Dean’s Pilot and Innovation Award; and Georgia Center for Diabetes Translation Research Pilot and Feasibility award program. She reported no relevant conflicts.

While trials of various interventions for obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia were effective, there was a strong suggestion that tailoring them according to the race/gender of the target populations strengthens engagement and improvements, according to a presentation by Dayna A. Johnson, PhD, MPH, at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST).

Dr. Johnson, assistant professor at Emory University in Atlanta, stated that determinants of sleep disparities are multifactorial across the lifespan, from in utero to aging, but it was also important to focus on social determinants of poor sleep.

The complexity of factors, she said, calls for multilevel interventions beyond screening and treatment. Racism and discrimination come into play, especially with regard to anxiety and stress, In addition, neighborhood factors including safety, noise and light pollution, ventilation, and thermal comfort come into play.

Dr. Johnson cited the example of parents who work multiple jobs to provide for their families: “Minimum wage is not a livable wage, and parents may not be available to ensure that children have consistent bedtimes.” Interventions, she added, may have to be at the neighborhood level, including placing sleep specialists in the local neighborhood “where the need is.” Cleaning up a neighborhood reduces crime and overall health, while light shielding in public housing can lower light pollution.

Observing that African Americans have higher rates of obstructive sleep apnea, Dr. Johnson and colleagues designed a screening tool specifically for African Americans with five prediction models with increasing levels of factor measurements (from 4 to 10). The prediction accuracy across the models ascended in lockstep with the number of measures from 74.0% to 76.1%, with the simplest model including only age, body mass index, male sex, and snoring. The latter model added witnessed apneas, high depressive symptoms, two measures of waist and neck size, and sleepiness. Dr. Johnson pointed out that accuracy for well-established predictive models is notably lower: STOP-Bang score ranges from 56% to 66%; NoSAS ranges from 58% to 66% and the HCHS prediction model accuracy is 70%. Dr. Johnson said that a Latino model they developed was more accurate than the traditional models, but not as accurate as their model for African Americans.

Turning to specific interventions, and underscoring higher levels of stress and anxiety among African American and Hispanic populations, Dr. Johnson cited MINDS (Mindfulness Intervention to Improve Sleep and Reduce Diabetes Risk Among a Diverse Sample in Atlanta), her study at Emory University of mindfulness meditation. Although prior studies have confirmed sleep benefits of mindfulness meditation, studies tailored for African American or Hispanic populations have been lacking.

The MINDS pilot study investigators enrolled 17 individuals (mostly women, with a mixture of racial and ethnic groups comprising Black, White, Asian and Hispanic patients) with poor sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Most patients, Dr. Johnson said, were overweight. Because of COVID restrictions on clinic visits, the diabetes portion of the study was dropped. All participants received at least 3 days of instruction on mindfulness meditation, on dealing with stress and anxiety, and on optimum sleep health practices. While PSQI scores higher than 5 are considered to indicate poor sleep quality, the mean PSQI score at study outset in MINDS was 9.2, she stated.

After 30 days of the intervention, stress (on a perceived stress scale) was improved, as were PSQI scores and actigraphy measures of sleep duration, efficiency and wakefulness after sleep onset, Dr. Johnson reported. “Participants found the mindfulness app to be acceptable and appropriate, and to reduce time to falling asleep,” Dr. Johnson said.

Qualitative data gathered post intervention from four focus groups (two to six participants in each; 1-1.5 hours in length), revealed general acceptability of the MINDS app. It showed also that among those with 50% or more adherence to the intervention, time to falling asleep was reduced, as were sleep awakenings at night. The most striking finding, Dr. Johnson said, was that individuals from among racial/ethnic minorities expressed appreciation of the diversity of the meditation instructors, and said that they preferred instruction from a person of their own race and sex. Findings would be even more striking with a larger sample size, Dr. Johnson speculated.

Citing TASHE (Tailored Approach to Sleep Health Education), a further observational study on obstructive sleep apnea knowledge conducted at New York University, Dr. Johnson addressed the fact that current messages are not tailored to race/ethnic minorities with low-to-moderate symptom knowledge. Also, a 3-arm randomized clinical trial of Internet-delivered treatment (Sleep Healthy or SHUTI) with a version revised for Black women (SHUTI-BWHS) showed findings similar to those of other studies cited and suggested: “Tailoring may be necessary to increase uptake and sustainability and to improve sleep among racial/ethnic minorities.”

Dr. Johnson noted, in closing, that Black/African American individuals have higher risk for obstructive sleep apnea than that of their White counterparts and lower rates of screening for treatment.

Dr. Johnson’s research was funded by the National Institutes of Health; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Woodruff Health Sciences Center; Synergy Award; Rollins School of Public Health Dean’s Pilot and Innovation Award; and Georgia Center for Diabetes Translation Research Pilot and Feasibility award program. She reported no relevant conflicts.

Cardiovascular health (CVH) scores that include sleep predicted CV disease risk among older U.S. adults, supporting the American Heart Association’s recent inclusion of sleep in its own checklist.

Sleep duration is now considered “an essential component for ideal heart and brain health,” according to the AHA’s updated checklist, now called Life’s Essential 8. “Our study is the first to show that sleep metrics add independent predictive value for CVD events over and above the original seven cardiovascular health metrics, providing support for updating the guidelines from Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) to Life’s Essential 8,” lead author Nour Makarem, PhD, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, said in an interview.

For the study, her team compared four versions of LS7 checklists that included sleep in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

“CVH scores that included sleep duration alone as a measure of overall sleep health, as well as scores that included multiple dimensions of sleep health (that is, sleep duration, efficiency, and regularity, daytime sleepiness, and sleep disorders), were both predictive of future CVD,” she said.

Study participants scoring in the highest tertile of the CVH checklists that included sleep had up to a 47% lower CVD risk.

Sleeping 7 hours or more but less than 9 hours nightly was considered “ideal,” according to the study, which was published online  in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
 

Lower the odds

Dr. Makarem and colleagues analyzed data from participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) sleep study using overnight polysomnography, 7-day wrist actigraphy, validated questionnaires, and outcomes. They used the data to evaluate the four iterations of an expanded LS7 score:

• Score 1 included sleep duration;
• Score 2 included sleep characteristics linked to CVD in the literature (sleep duration, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and obstructive sleep apnea [OSA]);
• Score 3 included sleep characteristics associated with CVD in MESA (sleep duration and efficiency, daytime sleepiness, and OSA); and
• Score 4, also based on CVD in MESA, included sleep regularity.

Among 1,920 participants (mean age 69 years; 54% women; 40%, White individuals), the mean LS7 score was 7.3, and the means of the alternate CVH scores that included sleep ranged from 7.4 to 7.8 (scores range from 0 to 14, with higher scores indicating better CVH).

On actigraphy, 63% of participants slept less than 7 hours; 30% slept less than 6 hours; 39% had high night-to-night variability in sleep duration; and 25% had high variability in sleep onset timing.

Overall, 10% had sleep efficiency less than 85%; 14% had excessive daytime sleepiness; 36% had high insomnia symptoms; and 47% had moderate to severe OSA. Short-duration sleepers also had a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, diabetes, and hypertension and had lower mean LS7 scores.

During a mean follow-up of 4.4 years, 95 prevalent CVD events and 93 incident cases occurred.

Higher scores on all four expanded versions were related to lower odds of having CVD. Participants in the highest versus the lowest tertile of the LS7 score had 75% lower CVD odds (odds ratio, 0.25). Similarly, those in the highest versus the lowest tertile of CVH scores 1 and 2 had 71% and 80% lower odds of prevalent CVD (OR, 0.29 and OR, 0.20), respectively.

Overall, participants in the highest versus lowest tertile of the LS7 score and all CVH scores had up to 80% lower odds of prevalent CVD; those in the highest versus lowest tertile of CVH score 1, which included sleep duration, and CVH score 4, which included multidimensional sleep health, had 43% and 47% lower incident CVD risk (hazard ratios, 0.57 and 0.53), respectively.

The LS7 score alone was not significantly associated with CVD incidence (HR, 0.62).

“Clinicians should ask patients about their sleep health and emphasize the importance of prioritizing sleep for heart disease prevention,” Dr. Makarem said.
 

Sleep ‘devalued’

“The sleep field has been fighting to get more sleep education into medical education for decades,” AHA volunteer expert Michael A. Grandner, PhD, Director of the Sleep & Health Research Program and of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, said in an interview.

“To my knowledge, there still is not a lot of attention given to it, partly because the culture in medical school and among residents is one of not sleeping,” said Dr. Grandner, who was not involved in the study. “The culture among physicians is ‘Who needs sleep? I function fine without it.’ ”

“Sleep made it to the checklist because it is a biological requirement for human life,” he noted. “We sleep for the same reason we breathe and drink. It’s an imperative. Yet we live in a society that devalues sleep.”

It’s “extremely unusual” for a doctor to ask a patient how they’re sleeping, he said. “It’s also pretty unusual to have sleep-related conversations between doctors and patients, especially in the context of health, not just, ‘Hey, doc, I can’t sleep, throw me a pill.’”

Clinicians should be asking every patient about how they’re sleeping at every visit, Dr. Grandner said. “It’s now part of the official definition of heart health. Just like you would be remiss if you didn’t ask about smoking or test blood pressure, you’d be missing something important by not asking about sleep – something that has similar billing to diet, exercise, blood pressure, and all the other ‘essentials.’ ”

No commercial funding or conflicts of interest were declared.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Cardiovascular health (CVH) scores that include sleep predicted CV disease risk among older U.S. adults, supporting the American Heart Association’s recent inclusion of sleep in its own checklist.

Sleep duration is now considered “an essential component for ideal heart and brain health,” according to the AHA’s updated checklist, now called Life’s Essential 8. “Our study is the first to show that sleep metrics add independent predictive value for CVD events over and above the original seven cardiovascular health metrics, providing support for updating the guidelines from Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) to Life’s Essential 8,” lead author Nour Makarem, PhD, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, said in an interview.

For the study, her team compared four versions of LS7 checklists that included sleep in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

“CVH scores that included sleep duration alone as a measure of overall sleep health, as well as scores that included multiple dimensions of sleep health (that is, sleep duration, efficiency, and regularity, daytime sleepiness, and sleep disorders), were both predictive of future CVD,” she said.

Study participants scoring in the highest tertile of the CVH checklists that included sleep had up to a 47% lower CVD risk.

Sleeping 7 hours or more but less than 9 hours nightly was considered “ideal,” according to the study, which was published online  in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
 

Lower the odds

Dr. Makarem and colleagues analyzed data from participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) sleep study using overnight polysomnography, 7-day wrist actigraphy, validated questionnaires, and outcomes. They used the data to evaluate the four iterations of an expanded LS7 score:

• Score 1 included sleep duration;
• Score 2 included sleep characteristics linked to CVD in the literature (sleep duration, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and obstructive sleep apnea [OSA]);
• Score 3 included sleep characteristics associated with CVD in MESA (sleep duration and efficiency, daytime sleepiness, and OSA); and
• Score 4, also based on CVD in MESA, included sleep regularity.

Among 1,920 participants (mean age 69 years; 54% women; 40%, White individuals), the mean LS7 score was 7.3, and the means of the alternate CVH scores that included sleep ranged from 7.4 to 7.8 (scores range from 0 to 14, with higher scores indicating better CVH).

On actigraphy, 63% of participants slept less than 7 hours; 30% slept less than 6 hours; 39% had high night-to-night variability in sleep duration; and 25% had high variability in sleep onset timing.

Overall, 10% had sleep efficiency less than 85%; 14% had excessive daytime sleepiness; 36% had high insomnia symptoms; and 47% had moderate to severe OSA. Short-duration sleepers also had a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, diabetes, and hypertension and had lower mean LS7 scores.

During a mean follow-up of 4.4 years, 95 prevalent CVD events and 93 incident cases occurred.

Higher scores on all four expanded versions were related to lower odds of having CVD. Participants in the highest versus the lowest tertile of the LS7 score had 75% lower CVD odds (odds ratio, 0.25). Similarly, those in the highest versus the lowest tertile of CVH scores 1 and 2 had 71% and 80% lower odds of prevalent CVD (OR, 0.29 and OR, 0.20), respectively.

Overall, participants in the highest versus lowest tertile of the LS7 score and all CVH scores had up to 80% lower odds of prevalent CVD; those in the highest versus lowest tertile of CVH score 1, which included sleep duration, and CVH score 4, which included multidimensional sleep health, had 43% and 47% lower incident CVD risk (hazard ratios, 0.57 and 0.53), respectively.

The LS7 score alone was not significantly associated with CVD incidence (HR, 0.62).

“Clinicians should ask patients about their sleep health and emphasize the importance of prioritizing sleep for heart disease prevention,” Dr. Makarem said.
 

Sleep ‘devalued’

“The sleep field has been fighting to get more sleep education into medical education for decades,” AHA volunteer expert Michael A. Grandner, PhD, Director of the Sleep & Health Research Program and of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, said in an interview.

“To my knowledge, there still is not a lot of attention given to it, partly because the culture in medical school and among residents is one of not sleeping,” said Dr. Grandner, who was not involved in the study. “The culture among physicians is ‘Who needs sleep? I function fine without it.’ ”

“Sleep made it to the checklist because it is a biological requirement for human life,” he noted. “We sleep for the same reason we breathe and drink. It’s an imperative. Yet we live in a society that devalues sleep.”

It’s “extremely unusual” for a doctor to ask a patient how they’re sleeping, he said. “It’s also pretty unusual to have sleep-related conversations between doctors and patients, especially in the context of health, not just, ‘Hey, doc, I can’t sleep, throw me a pill.’”

Clinicians should be asking every patient about how they’re sleeping at every visit, Dr. Grandner said. “It’s now part of the official definition of heart health. Just like you would be remiss if you didn’t ask about smoking or test blood pressure, you’d be missing something important by not asking about sleep – something that has similar billing to diet, exercise, blood pressure, and all the other ‘essentials.’ ”

No commercial funding or conflicts of interest were declared.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Cardiovascular health (CVH) scores that include sleep predicted CV disease risk among older U.S. adults, supporting the American Heart Association’s recent inclusion of sleep in its own checklist.

Sleep duration is now considered “an essential component for ideal heart and brain health,” according to the AHA’s updated checklist, now called Life’s Essential 8. “Our study is the first to show that sleep metrics add independent predictive value for CVD events over and above the original seven cardiovascular health metrics, providing support for updating the guidelines from Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) to Life’s Essential 8,” lead author Nour Makarem, PhD, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, said in an interview.

For the study, her team compared four versions of LS7 checklists that included sleep in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk.

“CVH scores that included sleep duration alone as a measure of overall sleep health, as well as scores that included multiple dimensions of sleep health (that is, sleep duration, efficiency, and regularity, daytime sleepiness, and sleep disorders), were both predictive of future CVD,” she said.

Study participants scoring in the highest tertile of the CVH checklists that included sleep had up to a 47% lower CVD risk.

Sleeping 7 hours or more but less than 9 hours nightly was considered “ideal,” according to the study, which was published online  in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
 

Lower the odds

Dr. Makarem and colleagues analyzed data from participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) sleep study using overnight polysomnography, 7-day wrist actigraphy, validated questionnaires, and outcomes. They used the data to evaluate the four iterations of an expanded LS7 score:

• Score 1 included sleep duration;
• Score 2 included sleep characteristics linked to CVD in the literature (sleep duration, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and obstructive sleep apnea [OSA]);
• Score 3 included sleep characteristics associated with CVD in MESA (sleep duration and efficiency, daytime sleepiness, and OSA); and
• Score 4, also based on CVD in MESA, included sleep regularity.

Among 1,920 participants (mean age 69 years; 54% women; 40%, White individuals), the mean LS7 score was 7.3, and the means of the alternate CVH scores that included sleep ranged from 7.4 to 7.8 (scores range from 0 to 14, with higher scores indicating better CVH).

On actigraphy, 63% of participants slept less than 7 hours; 30% slept less than 6 hours; 39% had high night-to-night variability in sleep duration; and 25% had high variability in sleep onset timing.

Overall, 10% had sleep efficiency less than 85%; 14% had excessive daytime sleepiness; 36% had high insomnia symptoms; and 47% had moderate to severe OSA. Short-duration sleepers also had a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, diabetes, and hypertension and had lower mean LS7 scores.

During a mean follow-up of 4.4 years, 95 prevalent CVD events and 93 incident cases occurred.

Higher scores on all four expanded versions were related to lower odds of having CVD. Participants in the highest versus the lowest tertile of the LS7 score had 75% lower CVD odds (odds ratio, 0.25). Similarly, those in the highest versus the lowest tertile of CVH scores 1 and 2 had 71% and 80% lower odds of prevalent CVD (OR, 0.29 and OR, 0.20), respectively.

Overall, participants in the highest versus lowest tertile of the LS7 score and all CVH scores had up to 80% lower odds of prevalent CVD; those in the highest versus lowest tertile of CVH score 1, which included sleep duration, and CVH score 4, which included multidimensional sleep health, had 43% and 47% lower incident CVD risk (hazard ratios, 0.57 and 0.53), respectively.

The LS7 score alone was not significantly associated with CVD incidence (HR, 0.62).

“Clinicians should ask patients about their sleep health and emphasize the importance of prioritizing sleep for heart disease prevention,” Dr. Makarem said.
 

Sleep ‘devalued’

“The sleep field has been fighting to get more sleep education into medical education for decades,” AHA volunteer expert Michael A. Grandner, PhD, Director of the Sleep & Health Research Program and of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, said in an interview.

“To my knowledge, there still is not a lot of attention given to it, partly because the culture in medical school and among residents is one of not sleeping,” said Dr. Grandner, who was not involved in the study. “The culture among physicians is ‘Who needs sleep? I function fine without it.’ ”

“Sleep made it to the checklist because it is a biological requirement for human life,” he noted. “We sleep for the same reason we breathe and drink. It’s an imperative. Yet we live in a society that devalues sleep.”

It’s “extremely unusual” for a doctor to ask a patient how they’re sleeping, he said. “It’s also pretty unusual to have sleep-related conversations between doctors and patients, especially in the context of health, not just, ‘Hey, doc, I can’t sleep, throw me a pill.’”

Clinicians should be asking every patient about how they’re sleeping at every visit, Dr. Grandner said. “It’s now part of the official definition of heart health. Just like you would be remiss if you didn’t ask about smoking or test blood pressure, you’d be missing something important by not asking about sleep – something that has similar billing to diet, exercise, blood pressure, and all the other ‘essentials.’ ”

No commercial funding or conflicts of interest were declared.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Individuals who are middle-aged and older and who sleep 5 hours or less a night may be at risk for an array of serious and chronic health conditions, ranging from heart disease to cancer, results of a large study show.

Researchers at University College London and Université Paris Cité found that beginning at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or fewer a night had a 30% higher risk of developing multiple chronic diseases over time than those who slept at least 7 hours a night. By the time the participants were aged 70 years, that risk had increased to 40%.

Diseases for which there was a higher risk included diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, depression, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and arthritis.

“It is important to take care of our sleep,” lead investigator Séverine Sabia, PhD, said in an interview. Dr. Sabia is a researcher and epidemiologist at Université Paris Cité and INSERM in Paris, and the University College London.

She noted that the source of the sleep problem must be addressed, but in cases in which there is no medical reason for sleep paucity, “healthy sleep habits are a must. These include keeping a regular sleep schedule, a healthy lifestyle – physical activity and light exposure during the day, and a light dinner – and avoidance of screens for a half hour before sleep.”

The study was published online in PLOS Medicine.
 

Risk of multiple chronic diseases

Prior research suggests that sleeping for 5 hours or less or 9 hours or more is associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

For the current study, Dr. Sabia and her team asked nearly 8,000 civil servants in the United Kingdom as part of the Whitehall II cohort study to report the amount of sleep they received beginning at age 50 every 4 to 5 years for the next 25 years. Study participants were free of chronic disease at age 50 and were mostly male (67.5%) and White (90%).

The investigators found that at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or less were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with multiple chronic diseases over time, (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.50; P < .001) compared with their peers who slept 7 hours.

At age 60, those who slept 5 hours or less had a 32% greater risk of developing more than one chronic disease (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.13-1.55; P < .001), and by age 70, this risk increased to 40% compared with their peers who slept 7 hours a night (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.16-1.68; P < .001).

For participants who slept 9 or more hours per night, only those aged 60 (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.15-2.06; P = .003) and 70 (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.10-2.08; P = .010) were at increased risk of developing more than one chronic disease.

Dr. Sabia noted that previous studies have shown that those who slept less than 5 hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes, hypertension, CVD, or dementia. “However, chronic diseases often coexist, particularly at older ages, and it remains unclear how sleep duration may be associated with risk of multimorbidity,” she said. She noted that several biological hypotheses have been proposed as underlying the association.

“Sleep is important for the regulation of several body functions, such as metabolic, endocrine, and inflammatory regulation over the day, that in turn, when dysregulated, may contribute to increased risk of several chronic conditions.”

The authors acknowledge several study limitations, including the fact that the data were obtained via participant self-reports, which may be affected by reporting bias. There was also a lack of diversity within the study sample, as the civil servants were mostly male and White. In addition to this, the investigators note that the study population of British civil servants tended to be healthier than the general population.
 

Chicken or egg?

Commenting on the findings for this article, Charlene Gamaldo, MD, urged caution in interpreting the findings. She noted that self-reporting of sleep has been established as “potentially problematic” because it doesn’t always correlate with actual sleep.

Dr. Gamaldo, who is professor of neurology and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the medical director of the JHU Center for Sleep and Wellness, said previous studies have shown that underestimation of sleep can occur among those suffering with insomnia and that overestimation can be seen among individuals with behaviorally based chronic, insufficient sleep.

Dr. Gamaldo also raised the issue of sleep quality.

“Getting 5 hours of high-quality sleep is less worrisome than one getting 8 hours of terrible-quality, based on untreated sleep apnea, for instance,” she noted.

In addition, she pointed out that chronic health problems can interrupt sleep. “Which is the chicken, and which is the egg?” she asked.

“For me, the take-home of current literature and supported by this paper is that individuals with sleep quality complaints, short duration, or related impact in daytime function should address them with their treating provider to assess for the underlying cause.

“Those sleeping under 5 hours without complaints should consider whether 5 hours really represents the amount of sleep they need to wake rested and function at their best. If answer is no, they should prioritize getting more sleep,” she concluded.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Health, the UK Research Medical Council, the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the French National Research Agency. The investigators and Dr. Gamaldo report no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Individuals who are middle-aged and older and who sleep 5 hours or less a night may be at risk for an array of serious and chronic health conditions, ranging from heart disease to cancer, results of a large study show.

Researchers at University College London and Université Paris Cité found that beginning at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or fewer a night had a 30% higher risk of developing multiple chronic diseases over time than those who slept at least 7 hours a night. By the time the participants were aged 70 years, that risk had increased to 40%.

Diseases for which there was a higher risk included diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, depression, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and arthritis.

“It is important to take care of our sleep,” lead investigator Séverine Sabia, PhD, said in an interview. Dr. Sabia is a researcher and epidemiologist at Université Paris Cité and INSERM in Paris, and the University College London.

She noted that the source of the sleep problem must be addressed, but in cases in which there is no medical reason for sleep paucity, “healthy sleep habits are a must. These include keeping a regular sleep schedule, a healthy lifestyle – physical activity and light exposure during the day, and a light dinner – and avoidance of screens for a half hour before sleep.”

The study was published online in PLOS Medicine.
 

Risk of multiple chronic diseases

Prior research suggests that sleeping for 5 hours or less or 9 hours or more is associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

For the current study, Dr. Sabia and her team asked nearly 8,000 civil servants in the United Kingdom as part of the Whitehall II cohort study to report the amount of sleep they received beginning at age 50 every 4 to 5 years for the next 25 years. Study participants were free of chronic disease at age 50 and were mostly male (67.5%) and White (90%).

The investigators found that at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or less were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with multiple chronic diseases over time, (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.50; P < .001) compared with their peers who slept 7 hours.

At age 60, those who slept 5 hours or less had a 32% greater risk of developing more than one chronic disease (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.13-1.55; P < .001), and by age 70, this risk increased to 40% compared with their peers who slept 7 hours a night (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.16-1.68; P < .001).

For participants who slept 9 or more hours per night, only those aged 60 (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.15-2.06; P = .003) and 70 (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.10-2.08; P = .010) were at increased risk of developing more than one chronic disease.

Dr. Sabia noted that previous studies have shown that those who slept less than 5 hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes, hypertension, CVD, or dementia. “However, chronic diseases often coexist, particularly at older ages, and it remains unclear how sleep duration may be associated with risk of multimorbidity,” she said. She noted that several biological hypotheses have been proposed as underlying the association.

“Sleep is important for the regulation of several body functions, such as metabolic, endocrine, and inflammatory regulation over the day, that in turn, when dysregulated, may contribute to increased risk of several chronic conditions.”

The authors acknowledge several study limitations, including the fact that the data were obtained via participant self-reports, which may be affected by reporting bias. There was also a lack of diversity within the study sample, as the civil servants were mostly male and White. In addition to this, the investigators note that the study population of British civil servants tended to be healthier than the general population.
 

Chicken or egg?

Commenting on the findings for this article, Charlene Gamaldo, MD, urged caution in interpreting the findings. She noted that self-reporting of sleep has been established as “potentially problematic” because it doesn’t always correlate with actual sleep.

Dr. Gamaldo, who is professor of neurology and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the medical director of the JHU Center for Sleep and Wellness, said previous studies have shown that underestimation of sleep can occur among those suffering with insomnia and that overestimation can be seen among individuals with behaviorally based chronic, insufficient sleep.

Dr. Gamaldo also raised the issue of sleep quality.

“Getting 5 hours of high-quality sleep is less worrisome than one getting 8 hours of terrible-quality, based on untreated sleep apnea, for instance,” she noted.

In addition, she pointed out that chronic health problems can interrupt sleep. “Which is the chicken, and which is the egg?” she asked.

“For me, the take-home of current literature and supported by this paper is that individuals with sleep quality complaints, short duration, or related impact in daytime function should address them with their treating provider to assess for the underlying cause.

“Those sleeping under 5 hours without complaints should consider whether 5 hours really represents the amount of sleep they need to wake rested and function at their best. If answer is no, they should prioritize getting more sleep,” she concluded.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Health, the UK Research Medical Council, the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the French National Research Agency. The investigators and Dr. Gamaldo report no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Individuals who are middle-aged and older and who sleep 5 hours or less a night may be at risk for an array of serious and chronic health conditions, ranging from heart disease to cancer, results of a large study show.

Researchers at University College London and Université Paris Cité found that beginning at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or fewer a night had a 30% higher risk of developing multiple chronic diseases over time than those who slept at least 7 hours a night. By the time the participants were aged 70 years, that risk had increased to 40%.

Diseases for which there was a higher risk included diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, depression, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and arthritis.

“It is important to take care of our sleep,” lead investigator Séverine Sabia, PhD, said in an interview. Dr. Sabia is a researcher and epidemiologist at Université Paris Cité and INSERM in Paris, and the University College London.

She noted that the source of the sleep problem must be addressed, but in cases in which there is no medical reason for sleep paucity, “healthy sleep habits are a must. These include keeping a regular sleep schedule, a healthy lifestyle – physical activity and light exposure during the day, and a light dinner – and avoidance of screens for a half hour before sleep.”

The study was published online in PLOS Medicine.
 

Risk of multiple chronic diseases

Prior research suggests that sleeping for 5 hours or less or 9 hours or more is associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD).

For the current study, Dr. Sabia and her team asked nearly 8,000 civil servants in the United Kingdom as part of the Whitehall II cohort study to report the amount of sleep they received beginning at age 50 every 4 to 5 years for the next 25 years. Study participants were free of chronic disease at age 50 and were mostly male (67.5%) and White (90%).

The investigators found that at age 50, those who slept 5 hours or less were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with multiple chronic diseases over time, (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.12-1.50; P < .001) compared with their peers who slept 7 hours.

At age 60, those who slept 5 hours or less had a 32% greater risk of developing more than one chronic disease (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.13-1.55; P < .001), and by age 70, this risk increased to 40% compared with their peers who slept 7 hours a night (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.16-1.68; P < .001).

For participants who slept 9 or more hours per night, only those aged 60 (HR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.15-2.06; P = .003) and 70 (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.10-2.08; P = .010) were at increased risk of developing more than one chronic disease.

Dr. Sabia noted that previous studies have shown that those who slept less than 5 hours a night were more likely to develop diabetes, hypertension, CVD, or dementia. “However, chronic diseases often coexist, particularly at older ages, and it remains unclear how sleep duration may be associated with risk of multimorbidity,” she said. She noted that several biological hypotheses have been proposed as underlying the association.

“Sleep is important for the regulation of several body functions, such as metabolic, endocrine, and inflammatory regulation over the day, that in turn, when dysregulated, may contribute to increased risk of several chronic conditions.”

The authors acknowledge several study limitations, including the fact that the data were obtained via participant self-reports, which may be affected by reporting bias. There was also a lack of diversity within the study sample, as the civil servants were mostly male and White. In addition to this, the investigators note that the study population of British civil servants tended to be healthier than the general population.
 

Chicken or egg?

Commenting on the findings for this article, Charlene Gamaldo, MD, urged caution in interpreting the findings. She noted that self-reporting of sleep has been established as “potentially problematic” because it doesn’t always correlate with actual sleep.

Dr. Gamaldo, who is professor of neurology and psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the medical director of the JHU Center for Sleep and Wellness, said previous studies have shown that underestimation of sleep can occur among those suffering with insomnia and that overestimation can be seen among individuals with behaviorally based chronic, insufficient sleep.

Dr. Gamaldo also raised the issue of sleep quality.

“Getting 5 hours of high-quality sleep is less worrisome than one getting 8 hours of terrible-quality, based on untreated sleep apnea, for instance,” she noted.

In addition, she pointed out that chronic health problems can interrupt sleep. “Which is the chicken, and which is the egg?” she asked.

“For me, the take-home of current literature and supported by this paper is that individuals with sleep quality complaints, short duration, or related impact in daytime function should address them with their treating provider to assess for the underlying cause.

“Those sleeping under 5 hours without complaints should consider whether 5 hours really represents the amount of sleep they need to wake rested and function at their best. If answer is no, they should prioritize getting more sleep,” she concluded.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Health, the UK Research Medical Council, the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the French National Research Agency. The investigators and Dr. Gamaldo report no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Mental health symptoms at the time of admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital were significantly more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the time before the pandemic, based on data from more than 500 individuals.

“Those with preexisting mental health conditions may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they are more susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress during a crisis and are more likely to experience isolation/despair during confinement compared to the general population,” wrote Danna Ramirez of The Menninger Clinic, Houston, and colleagues.

In a study published in Psychiatry Research , the investigators compared data from 142 adolescents aged 12-17 years and 470 adults aged 18-79 years who were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Houston. Of these, 65 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted before the pandemic, and 77 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted during the pandemic.

Clinical outcomes were scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form (DERS-SF), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS), the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOASSIST), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Disturbing Dream and Nightmare Severity Index (DDNSI), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire–Revised (SBQ-R).

Overall, adults admitted during the pandemic had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and disability (P < .001 for all) as well as nightmares (P = .013) compared to those admitted prior to the pandemic.

Among adolescents, measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were significantly higher at admission during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic (P = .005, P = .005, and P = .011, respectively)

Reasons for the increase in symptom severity remain unclear, but include the possibility that individuals with preexisting mental illness simply became more ill; or that individuals with symptoms delayed hospital admission out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, which resulted in more severe symptoms at admission, the researchers wrote in their discussion.

The findings were limited by several factors, including the primarily White population and the reliance on self-reports, the researchers noted. Another limitation was the lack of differentiation between patients who may have had COVID-19 before hospitalization and those who did not, so the researchers could not determine whether the virus itself played a biological role in symptom severity.

However, the results support data from previous studies and identify increased psychiatry symptom severity for patients admitted for inpatient psychiatry care during the pandemic, they said. Although resources are scarce, the findings emphasize that mental health needs, especially for those with preexisting conditions, should not be overlooked, and continuity and expansion of access to mental health care for all should be prioritized, they concluded.

The study was supported by The Menninger Clinic and The Menninger Clinic Foundation. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Mental health symptoms at the time of admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital were significantly more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the time before the pandemic, based on data from more than 500 individuals.

“Those with preexisting mental health conditions may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they are more susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress during a crisis and are more likely to experience isolation/despair during confinement compared to the general population,” wrote Danna Ramirez of The Menninger Clinic, Houston, and colleagues.

In a study published in Psychiatry Research , the investigators compared data from 142 adolescents aged 12-17 years and 470 adults aged 18-79 years who were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Houston. Of these, 65 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted before the pandemic, and 77 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted during the pandemic.

Clinical outcomes were scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form (DERS-SF), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS), the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOASSIST), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Disturbing Dream and Nightmare Severity Index (DDNSI), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire–Revised (SBQ-R).

Overall, adults admitted during the pandemic had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and disability (P < .001 for all) as well as nightmares (P = .013) compared to those admitted prior to the pandemic.

Among adolescents, measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were significantly higher at admission during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic (P = .005, P = .005, and P = .011, respectively)

Reasons for the increase in symptom severity remain unclear, but include the possibility that individuals with preexisting mental illness simply became more ill; or that individuals with symptoms delayed hospital admission out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, which resulted in more severe symptoms at admission, the researchers wrote in their discussion.

The findings were limited by several factors, including the primarily White population and the reliance on self-reports, the researchers noted. Another limitation was the lack of differentiation between patients who may have had COVID-19 before hospitalization and those who did not, so the researchers could not determine whether the virus itself played a biological role in symptom severity.

However, the results support data from previous studies and identify increased psychiatry symptom severity for patients admitted for inpatient psychiatry care during the pandemic, they said. Although resources are scarce, the findings emphasize that mental health needs, especially for those with preexisting conditions, should not be overlooked, and continuity and expansion of access to mental health care for all should be prioritized, they concluded.

The study was supported by The Menninger Clinic and The Menninger Clinic Foundation. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Mental health symptoms at the time of admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital were significantly more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the time before the pandemic, based on data from more than 500 individuals.

“Those with preexisting mental health conditions may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they are more susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress during a crisis and are more likely to experience isolation/despair during confinement compared to the general population,” wrote Danna Ramirez of The Menninger Clinic, Houston, and colleagues.

In a study published in Psychiatry Research , the investigators compared data from 142 adolescents aged 12-17 years and 470 adults aged 18-79 years who were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Houston. Of these, 65 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted before the pandemic, and 77 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted during the pandemic.

Clinical outcomes were scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form (DERS-SF), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS), the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOASSIST), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Disturbing Dream and Nightmare Severity Index (DDNSI), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire–Revised (SBQ-R).

Overall, adults admitted during the pandemic had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and disability (P < .001 for all) as well as nightmares (P = .013) compared to those admitted prior to the pandemic.

Among adolescents, measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were significantly higher at admission during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic (P = .005, P = .005, and P = .011, respectively)

Reasons for the increase in symptom severity remain unclear, but include the possibility that individuals with preexisting mental illness simply became more ill; or that individuals with symptoms delayed hospital admission out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, which resulted in more severe symptoms at admission, the researchers wrote in their discussion.

The findings were limited by several factors, including the primarily White population and the reliance on self-reports, the researchers noted. Another limitation was the lack of differentiation between patients who may have had COVID-19 before hospitalization and those who did not, so the researchers could not determine whether the virus itself played a biological role in symptom severity.

However, the results support data from previous studies and identify increased psychiatry symptom severity for patients admitted for inpatient psychiatry care during the pandemic, they said. Although resources are scarce, the findings emphasize that mental health needs, especially for those with preexisting conditions, should not be overlooked, and continuity and expansion of access to mental health care for all should be prioritized, they concluded.

The study was supported by The Menninger Clinic and The Menninger Clinic Foundation. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.

A stuffed animal, aromatherapy, a night light. A kit containing these and other items can help children in foster care who have experienced trauma sleep more soundly, a critical step in helping them cope with their emotional distress. 

In a new study, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported that sleep kits specially tailored to foster children appeared to be helpful in most cases. The kits can be distributed by pediatricians in the office or clinic setting.

“Children who have experienced trauma can have issues with behavior, it can impact their school, and they have difficulties sleeping,” said Kristine Fortin, MD, MPH, director of the fostering health program at Safe Place: Center for Child Protection and Health at CHOP. “I thought, what could a pediatrician do in the office in one visit to help children with sleep?”

Dr. Fortin and colleagues designed sleep kits for both younger children and adolescents.

The version for teenagers contained a sound machine, aromatherapy spray, and a sleep mask. The kits for younger children contained matching stuffed toys to share with someone they felt connected to, and a rechargeable night-light. All kits included written materials about sleep hygiene, a journal, and directions for downloading a free age-appropriate relaxation app for belly breathing or a PTSD Coach app from the Department of Veterans Affairs to manage symptoms of trauma.

In a pilot study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Fortin and colleagues surveyed caregivers in foster homes about their use of the kits.

Of the 20 foster parents who responded to the survey, 11 said the kits helped “very much,” 5 others reported they helped “somewhat,” another 2 reported no improvements in sleep, and 2 said they didn’t know the effect. The children for whom results were unknown moved from the home without the sleep kit or had difficulties communicating with the foster parents, resulting in incomplete assessment, according to the researchers. 

Night-lights were used most in the kits, followed by the stuffed toys, sound machines, and sleep journals.

Dr. Fortin said existing resources like sleep therapy or medication can be costly or difficult to find, and many pediatricians don’t have enough time during wellness visits to address symptoms like sleep deprivation. She said the sleep kits could be an alternative to other forms of sleep therapy. “If these sleep kits were effective, and could really help them sleep, then maybe less children would need something like medication.”

Dr. Fortin said the kits her group has designed are tailored specifically for children with symptoms of trauma, or with difficult emotions associated with foster care.

“We’ve tried to design something that can be really practical and easy to use in a pediatric visit, where there’s a lot of written information that can be discussed with the child and their family,” Dr. Fortin said.

She added that she would like to see clinicians give out the sleep kits during in-office visits.

“These sleep issues are common in foster children,” she said. “We felt it was important to do an intervention.”

Kristina Lenker, PhD, a sleep psychologist at Penn State Health, Hershey, said children in foster care often struggle with falling or staying asleep, an inability to sleep alone, nightmares, and bed wetting.

“Sleep kits can be particularly helpful for these children, given how they can help caregivers to provide a safe sleep environment and predictable routine, and send messages of safety and comfort at bedtime, with tangible objects, and enable children to feel a sense of control,” she said.

Charitable organizations like Pajama Program and Sleeping Children Around the World provide sleep kits to children from underserved backgrounds. But Candice Alfano, PhD, director of the University of Houston’s Sleep and Anxiety Center of Houston, said the CHOP kits are the first to specifically target sleeping difficulties in foster children.

“Sleep is a largely neglected yet essential area of health, development, and well-being in this highly-vulnerable population of youth, so I am very excited to see this work being done,” Dr. Alfano said in an interview.

Dr. Fortin and Dr. Lenker reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

A stuffed animal, aromatherapy, a night light. A kit containing these and other items can help children in foster care who have experienced trauma sleep more soundly, a critical step in helping them cope with their emotional distress. 

In a new study, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported that sleep kits specially tailored to foster children appeared to be helpful in most cases. The kits can be distributed by pediatricians in the office or clinic setting.

“Children who have experienced trauma can have issues with behavior, it can impact their school, and they have difficulties sleeping,” said Kristine Fortin, MD, MPH, director of the fostering health program at Safe Place: Center for Child Protection and Health at CHOP. “I thought, what could a pediatrician do in the office in one visit to help children with sleep?”

Dr. Fortin and colleagues designed sleep kits for both younger children and adolescents.

The version for teenagers contained a sound machine, aromatherapy spray, and a sleep mask. The kits for younger children contained matching stuffed toys to share with someone they felt connected to, and a rechargeable night-light. All kits included written materials about sleep hygiene, a journal, and directions for downloading a free age-appropriate relaxation app for belly breathing or a PTSD Coach app from the Department of Veterans Affairs to manage symptoms of trauma.

In a pilot study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Fortin and colleagues surveyed caregivers in foster homes about their use of the kits.

Of the 20 foster parents who responded to the survey, 11 said the kits helped “very much,” 5 others reported they helped “somewhat,” another 2 reported no improvements in sleep, and 2 said they didn’t know the effect. The children for whom results were unknown moved from the home without the sleep kit or had difficulties communicating with the foster parents, resulting in incomplete assessment, according to the researchers. 

Night-lights were used most in the kits, followed by the stuffed toys, sound machines, and sleep journals.

Dr. Fortin said existing resources like sleep therapy or medication can be costly or difficult to find, and many pediatricians don’t have enough time during wellness visits to address symptoms like sleep deprivation. She said the sleep kits could be an alternative to other forms of sleep therapy. “If these sleep kits were effective, and could really help them sleep, then maybe less children would need something like medication.”

Dr. Fortin said the kits her group has designed are tailored specifically for children with symptoms of trauma, or with difficult emotions associated with foster care.

“We’ve tried to design something that can be really practical and easy to use in a pediatric visit, where there’s a lot of written information that can be discussed with the child and their family,” Dr. Fortin said.

She added that she would like to see clinicians give out the sleep kits during in-office visits.

“These sleep issues are common in foster children,” she said. “We felt it was important to do an intervention.”

Kristina Lenker, PhD, a sleep psychologist at Penn State Health, Hershey, said children in foster care often struggle with falling or staying asleep, an inability to sleep alone, nightmares, and bed wetting.

“Sleep kits can be particularly helpful for these children, given how they can help caregivers to provide a safe sleep environment and predictable routine, and send messages of safety and comfort at bedtime, with tangible objects, and enable children to feel a sense of control,” she said.

Charitable organizations like Pajama Program and Sleeping Children Around the World provide sleep kits to children from underserved backgrounds. But Candice Alfano, PhD, director of the University of Houston’s Sleep and Anxiety Center of Houston, said the CHOP kits are the first to specifically target sleeping difficulties in foster children.

“Sleep is a largely neglected yet essential area of health, development, and well-being in this highly-vulnerable population of youth, so I am very excited to see this work being done,” Dr. Alfano said in an interview.

Dr. Fortin and Dr. Lenker reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

A stuffed animal, aromatherapy, a night light. A kit containing these and other items can help children in foster care who have experienced trauma sleep more soundly, a critical step in helping them cope with their emotional distress. 

In a new study, researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia reported that sleep kits specially tailored to foster children appeared to be helpful in most cases. The kits can be distributed by pediatricians in the office or clinic setting.

“Children who have experienced trauma can have issues with behavior, it can impact their school, and they have difficulties sleeping,” said Kristine Fortin, MD, MPH, director of the fostering health program at Safe Place: Center for Child Protection and Health at CHOP. “I thought, what could a pediatrician do in the office in one visit to help children with sleep?”

Dr. Fortin and colleagues designed sleep kits for both younger children and adolescents.

The version for teenagers contained a sound machine, aromatherapy spray, and a sleep mask. The kits for younger children contained matching stuffed toys to share with someone they felt connected to, and a rechargeable night-light. All kits included written materials about sleep hygiene, a journal, and directions for downloading a free age-appropriate relaxation app for belly breathing or a PTSD Coach app from the Department of Veterans Affairs to manage symptoms of trauma.

In a pilot study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Fortin and colleagues surveyed caregivers in foster homes about their use of the kits.

Of the 20 foster parents who responded to the survey, 11 said the kits helped “very much,” 5 others reported they helped “somewhat,” another 2 reported no improvements in sleep, and 2 said they didn’t know the effect. The children for whom results were unknown moved from the home without the sleep kit or had difficulties communicating with the foster parents, resulting in incomplete assessment, according to the researchers. 

Night-lights were used most in the kits, followed by the stuffed toys, sound machines, and sleep journals.

Dr. Fortin said existing resources like sleep therapy or medication can be costly or difficult to find, and many pediatricians don’t have enough time during wellness visits to address symptoms like sleep deprivation. She said the sleep kits could be an alternative to other forms of sleep therapy. “If these sleep kits were effective, and could really help them sleep, then maybe less children would need something like medication.”

Dr. Fortin said the kits her group has designed are tailored specifically for children with symptoms of trauma, or with difficult emotions associated with foster care.

“We’ve tried to design something that can be really practical and easy to use in a pediatric visit, where there’s a lot of written information that can be discussed with the child and their family,” Dr. Fortin said.

She added that she would like to see clinicians give out the sleep kits during in-office visits.

“These sleep issues are common in foster children,” she said. “We felt it was important to do an intervention.”

Kristina Lenker, PhD, a sleep psychologist at Penn State Health, Hershey, said children in foster care often struggle with falling or staying asleep, an inability to sleep alone, nightmares, and bed wetting.

“Sleep kits can be particularly helpful for these children, given how they can help caregivers to provide a safe sleep environment and predictable routine, and send messages of safety and comfort at bedtime, with tangible objects, and enable children to feel a sense of control,” she said.

Charitable organizations like Pajama Program and Sleeping Children Around the World provide sleep kits to children from underserved backgrounds. But Candice Alfano, PhD, director of the University of Houston’s Sleep and Anxiety Center of Houston, said the CHOP kits are the first to specifically target sleeping difficulties in foster children.

“Sleep is a largely neglected yet essential area of health, development, and well-being in this highly-vulnerable population of youth, so I am very excited to see this work being done,” Dr. Alfano said in an interview.

Dr. Fortin and Dr. Lenker reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

MADRID – Because of the hormone changes that occur throughout their lives, women experience sleep problems that differ significantly from those experienced by men. Indeed, 75%-84% of pregnant women don’t sleep well during the third trimester, and up to 80% of women in menopause have symptoms that prevent them from getting a good night’s rest. For those seeking a precision medicine approach, the challenge is to identify the relationship between the different sex-related phenotypes and the sleep conditions.

Irene Cano, MD, PhD, is the coordinator of the sleep department at the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. She spoke with this news organization about the significant impact of hormones on sleep disorders in women.

“Reproductive hormones like estrogen and progesterone play a meaningful role in brain functions – not only those linked to the regulation of reproduction but also other physiological processes related to the regulation of circadian rhythms, cognitive performance, mood, and sleep. In addition, other hormones – for example, prolactin, growth hormone, cortisol, and melatonin – have sex-dependent effects on sleep,” Dr. Cano said.

Girls start puberty at a younger age than boys. As girls enter adolescence, they go to bed later and waking up earlier. So, girls are getting less than the 10 hours of sleep that they should be getting at this stage of life. The result is sleep debt, which gives rise to various problems: poor academic performance, ADHD, obesity, and metabolic problems, to name a few. As Ariadna Farré, RN, a sleep unit nurse, noted at SEPAR’s Joint Winter Meeting, “schools would have to start morning classes later to get adolescents to perform well academically. As the situation is now, half of the kids are falling asleep at their desks.”
 

Influencing sleep quality

Dr. Cano explained the issue as follows: “In adolescence, along with changes in young women’s hormone levels, we begin to see differences between the sexes. The changes in levels of estrogens and progesterone are what’s responsible for the changes that, to some extent, cause those disturbances in the quality of our sleep and in the stages of our sleep.”

Thus, sleep can be affected by the changes in hormone level that occur during a menstrual cycle. Estrogens, which increase during the follicular phase, are associated with REM sleep, while progesterone, which increases during the luteal phase, increases non-REM sleep. “In the 3-6 days prior to menstruation, it’s quite common for a woman to report difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep, in connection with a decline in the percentage of time she spends in REM sleep, in the context of premenstrual syndrome. In addition,” Dr. Cano pointed out, “menstrual bleeding, that loss of blood, is associated with a drop in iron levels, making it more likely that the woman will experience restless legs syndrome.”
 

Cardiovascular system

This news organization also spoke with Milagros Merino, MD, PhD, president of the Spanish Sleep Society. “The consequences that lack of sleep have on the cardiovascular system – we’re essentially talking about certain arrhythmias, high blood pressure, thrombosis in some cases, stroke, and heart attack. Lack of sleep also gives rise to endocrine and metabolic issues, like overweight and being at a greater risk of developing diabetes. And as for mental health, we see, among other things, attention and memory problems, emotional lability, and irascibility. Numerous studies have confirmed all of this.”

Sleep apnea also deserves mention, Dr. Merino added. “Although this disorder is more common in men, we’re seeing it more and more now in women, along with the cardiovascular issues that it brings about.”

Another cardiovascular risk factor is insomnia, said Dr. Merino. “This sleep disorder is more prevalent in women. As hormones constantly change, the ways women sleep constantly change, from one stage of life to the next. They sleep one way in childhood, another way in adolescence, and yet another way in menopause.”
 

Sleep in pregnancy

During pregnancy, hormone changes are much more pronounced. During the first trimester, progesterone levels increase, making the woman drowsy. On top of that, her sleep is interrupted by more frequent visits to the bathroom as well as greater general discomfort.

In the second trimester, sleep interruptions persist but are not as bad as they were during the first 3 months. In the third trimester, 75%-84% of pregnant women find it difficult to sleep because of aches and pains, the need to urinate during the night, cramps, and heartburn.

“Major physical changes are happening. When the bladder gets compressed, the woman has to get up and go to the bathroom. There’s an interruption in her sleep,” Ms. Farré explained. In addition, as the pregnancy progresses, the woman gains weight and her body mass index (BMI) increases, which can bring on obstructive sleep apnea, high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and diabetes, if not closely monitored.

Other factors include concomitant treatments, such as contraceptives, and the stages of life, such as pregnancy and lactation. “When a woman of childbearing age has restless legs syndrome, more often than not, this means that she has an iron deficiency that needs to be treated with oral iron supplements,” said Dr. Merino. “However, there are few medications that can be given to a pregnant woman – and RLS is relatively common during pregnancy. So, we have to turn to oral or intravenous iron supplements. Yet another matter is narcolepsy. In these cases, all medications have to be stopped during pregnancy and lactation, as they can be harmful to the baby.”
 

Sleep apnea

While one in five menopausal women are asymptomatic, the others experience mild to severe symptoms of apnea that frequently interrupt their sleep. In this stage of life, which begins around age 50 years, the hormones that had provided protection against sleep disruptions start to decrease. As a result, there is a rise in sleep problems, especially insomnia, breathing-related sleep disorders (for example, apnea), and restless legs syndrome.

The prevalence of breathing-related sleep disorders during menopause is attributable to weight gain, the drop in levels of estrogens, and the redistribution of adipose tissue in the body. Other factors also increase a woman’s risk of experiencing apnea. They range from stress, depression, and other psychological and psychiatric conditions to health status, medication use, and simply the fact of getting older. “Sleep apnea is more common in men than in premenopausal women. The numbers even out, though, when we compare men against menopausal women,” Dr. Cano noted.

In women, symptoms of sleep apnea are frequently attributed to menopause. There is some overlap: insomnia, headache, irritability, low mood, decreased libido, fatigue during the day, and feeling sleepy. Only much later is the woman’s condition correctly diagnosed as sleep apnea. So, even though presenting with the same complaints, a man will be diagnosed with sleep apnea sooner than a woman will – in some cases, around 10 years sooner.

“On the other hand, we’d always thought that, in menopause, insomnia was characterized by awakenings occurring throughout the second half of the night. But perhaps what happens more often is that women are regularly waking up repeatedly over the course of the entire night, as opposed to experiencing a wakefulness that starts early and lasts throughout the night or having a problem falling asleep to begin with,” said Dr. Merino. “The good news is that hormone replacement therapy can get things back to the way they were. And getting better sleep will help to overcome insomnia.”
 

Socioeconomic status

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It affects 10%-20% of people, mostly women. “The fact that sleep problems are more prevalent in women can be explained by the fact that among women, there is a higher incidence of conditions that disrupt sleep, such as depression,” said Dr. Cano.

“Insomnia is much more common in adult women than adult men. And at menopause, women find that the insomnia only gets worse,” Dr. Merino added. “But around that same age, 50 years old, what we start to see more frequently in men is REM sleep behavior disorder, a type of parasomnia that’s a risk marker of degenerative nerve diseases.”

Dr. Cano emphasized one finding that, though basic, is not well known. “After adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, the difference between the sexes in reporting sleep problems is cut in half. This suggests that an important factor that explains why there are differences in sleep problems between the sexes is that women’s socioeconomic status is generally lower than men’s.

“As for sleep apnea in particular,” Dr. Cano continued, “the kinds of symptoms that women have can be different from the classic ones seen in men – snoring, pauses in breathing, and daytime sleepiness; women are being underdiagnosed, and when they are diagnosed, that’s happening at a later age and at a higher BMI.”

So, it’s alarming that, as reported by SEPAR, 90% of women with obstructive sleep apnea are not being diagnosed.
 

Precision medicine approach

“The majority of research studies on sleep apnea have focused on men – given the prevalence of cases – and the results have been extrapolated to women. This is why there’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of better defining the characteristics specific to each sleep disorder and how they relate to each sex,” said Dr. Cano. “Being able to identify the relationship between the different sex-related phenotypes and each condition will allow us to take a precision medicine approach tailored to a patient’s particular characteristics.”

As Dr. Merino put it: “The approach to sleep disorders is always personalized. The patient’s sex, in and of itself, doesn’t have that great of an impact on this approach. What does have a great impact are women’s life stages. There are some subtle differences here and there, such as types of continuous positive airway pressure machines. The ones that are designed for women have masks that are better suited to their facial features, which differ from men’s.”

A precision medicine approach can be taken to treat any sleep disorder. For insomnia, the approach allows healthcare professionals to employ an appropriate cognitive-behavioral therapy plan or to determine which drugs would be more effective – all on the basis of symptoms and the characteristics of the particular case. Regarding sleep apnea, Dr. Cano explained, “taking into account the different anatomical characteristics or the higher prevalence of positional apnea will also allow us to offer different therapeutic alternatives to continuous positive airway pressure, such as mandibular advancement devices or positional therapy devices.”

Women should be encouraged to develop good sleep habits. These include taking circadian rhythms into account and aligning lifestyles accordingly. It also means going to bed earlier than the men in the household. For menopausal women, recommended sleep habits range from keeping their bedroom at an ideal temperature, following a diet rich in vegetables to avoid becoming overweight, and exercising daily. While this advice may be more applicable to teenagers, adults can benefit from it as well: Electronic devices should be turned off well before bedtime. Whether from a phone screen, a tablet screen, or a TV screen, the light emitted can keep one awake, which can be harmful to one’s health.

Dr. Cano and Dr. Merino disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com. This article was translated from the Medscape Spanish edition.

MADRID – Because of the hormone changes that occur throughout their lives, women experience sleep problems that differ significantly from those experienced by men. Indeed, 75%-84% of pregnant women don’t sleep well during the third trimester, and up to 80% of women in menopause have symptoms that prevent them from getting a good night’s rest. For those seeking a precision medicine approach, the challenge is to identify the relationship between the different sex-related phenotypes and the sleep conditions.

Irene Cano, MD, PhD, is the coordinator of the sleep department at the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. She spoke with this news organization about the significant impact of hormones on sleep disorders in women.

“Reproductive hormones like estrogen and progesterone play a meaningful role in brain functions – not only those linked to the regulation of reproduction but also other physiological processes related to the regulation of circadian rhythms, cognitive performance, mood, and sleep. In addition, other hormones – for example, prolactin, growth hormone, cortisol, and melatonin – have sex-dependent effects on sleep,” Dr. Cano said.

Girls start puberty at a younger age than boys. As girls enter adolescence, they go to bed later and waking up earlier. So, girls are getting less than the 10 hours of sleep that they should be getting at this stage of life. The result is sleep debt, which gives rise to various problems: poor academic performance, ADHD, obesity, and metabolic problems, to name a few. As Ariadna Farré, RN, a sleep unit nurse, noted at SEPAR’s Joint Winter Meeting, “schools would have to start morning classes later to get adolescents to perform well academically. As the situation is now, half of the kids are falling asleep at their desks.”
 

Influencing sleep quality

Dr. Cano explained the issue as follows: “In adolescence, along with changes in young women’s hormone levels, we begin to see differences between the sexes. The changes in levels of estrogens and progesterone are what’s responsible for the changes that, to some extent, cause those disturbances in the quality of our sleep and in the stages of our sleep.”

Thus, sleep can be affected by the changes in hormone level that occur during a menstrual cycle. Estrogens, which increase during the follicular phase, are associated with REM sleep, while progesterone, which increases during the luteal phase, increases non-REM sleep. “In the 3-6 days prior to menstruation, it’s quite common for a woman to report difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep, in connection with a decline in the percentage of time she spends in REM sleep, in the context of premenstrual syndrome. In addition,” Dr. Cano pointed out, “menstrual bleeding, that loss of blood, is associated with a drop in iron levels, making it more likely that the woman will experience restless legs syndrome.”
 

Cardiovascular system

This news organization also spoke with Milagros Merino, MD, PhD, president of the Spanish Sleep Society. “The consequences that lack of sleep have on the cardiovascular system – we’re essentially talking about certain arrhythmias, high blood pressure, thrombosis in some cases, stroke, and heart attack. Lack of sleep also gives rise to endocrine and metabolic issues, like overweight and being at a greater risk of developing diabetes. And as for mental health, we see, among other things, attention and memory problems, emotional lability, and irascibility. Numerous studies have confirmed all of this.”

Sleep apnea also deserves mention, Dr. Merino added. “Although this disorder is more common in men, we’re seeing it more and more now in women, along with the cardiovascular issues that it brings about.”

Another cardiovascular risk factor is insomnia, said Dr. Merino. “This sleep disorder is more prevalent in women. As hormones constantly change, the ways women sleep constantly change, from one stage of life to the next. They sleep one way in childhood, another way in adolescence, and yet another way in menopause.”
 

Sleep in pregnancy

During pregnancy, hormone changes are much more pronounced. During the first trimester, progesterone levels increase, making the woman drowsy. On top of that, her sleep is interrupted by more frequent visits to the bathroom as well as greater general discomfort.

In the second trimester, sleep interruptions persist but are not as bad as they were during the first 3 months. In the third trimester, 75%-84% of pregnant women find it difficult to sleep because of aches and pains, the need to urinate during the night, cramps, and heartburn.

“Major physical changes are happening. When the bladder gets compressed, the woman has to get up and go to the bathroom. There’s an interruption in her sleep,” Ms. Farré explained. In addition, as the pregnancy progresses, the woman gains weight and her body mass index (BMI) increases, which can bring on obstructive sleep apnea, high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and diabetes, if not closely monitored.

Other factors include concomitant treatments, such as contraceptives, and the stages of life, such as pregnancy and lactation. “When a woman of childbearing age has restless legs syndrome, more often than not, this means that she has an iron deficiency that needs to be treated with oral iron supplements,” said Dr. Merino. “However, there are few medications that can be given to a pregnant woman – and RLS is relatively common during pregnancy. So, we have to turn to oral or intravenous iron supplements. Yet another matter is narcolepsy. In these cases, all medications have to be stopped during pregnancy and lactation, as they can be harmful to the baby.”
 

Sleep apnea

While one in five menopausal women are asymptomatic, the others experience mild to severe symptoms of apnea that frequently interrupt their sleep. In this stage of life, which begins around age 50 years, the hormones that had provided protection against sleep disruptions start to decrease. As a result, there is a rise in sleep problems, especially insomnia, breathing-related sleep disorders (for example, apnea), and restless legs syndrome.

The prevalence of breathing-related sleep disorders during menopause is attributable to weight gain, the drop in levels of estrogens, and the redistribution of adipose tissue in the body. Other factors also increase a woman’s risk of experiencing apnea. They range from stress, depression, and other psychological and psychiatric conditions to health status, medication use, and simply the fact of getting older. “Sleep apnea is more common in men than in premenopausal women. The numbers even out, though, when we compare men against menopausal women,” Dr. Cano noted.

In women, symptoms of sleep apnea are frequently attributed to menopause. There is some overlap: insomnia, headache, irritability, low mood, decreased libido, fatigue during the day, and feeling sleepy. Only much later is the woman’s condition correctly diagnosed as sleep apnea. So, even though presenting with the same complaints, a man will be diagnosed with sleep apnea sooner than a woman will – in some cases, around 10 years sooner.

“On the other hand, we’d always thought that, in menopause, insomnia was characterized by awakenings occurring throughout the second half of the night. But perhaps what happens more often is that women are regularly waking up repeatedly over the course of the entire night, as opposed to experiencing a wakefulness that starts early and lasts throughout the night or having a problem falling asleep to begin with,” said Dr. Merino. “The good news is that hormone replacement therapy can get things back to the way they were. And getting better sleep will help to overcome insomnia.”
 

Socioeconomic status

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It affects 10%-20% of people, mostly women. “The fact that sleep problems are more prevalent in women can be explained by the fact that among women, there is a higher incidence of conditions that disrupt sleep, such as depression,” said Dr. Cano.

“Insomnia is much more common in adult women than adult men. And at menopause, women find that the insomnia only gets worse,” Dr. Merino added. “But around that same age, 50 years old, what we start to see more frequently in men is REM sleep behavior disorder, a type of parasomnia that’s a risk marker of degenerative nerve diseases.”

Dr. Cano emphasized one finding that, though basic, is not well known. “After adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, the difference between the sexes in reporting sleep problems is cut in half. This suggests that an important factor that explains why there are differences in sleep problems between the sexes is that women’s socioeconomic status is generally lower than men’s.

“As for sleep apnea in particular,” Dr. Cano continued, “the kinds of symptoms that women have can be different from the classic ones seen in men – snoring, pauses in breathing, and daytime sleepiness; women are being underdiagnosed, and when they are diagnosed, that’s happening at a later age and at a higher BMI.”

So, it’s alarming that, as reported by SEPAR, 90% of women with obstructive sleep apnea are not being diagnosed.
 

Precision medicine approach

“The majority of research studies on sleep apnea have focused on men – given the prevalence of cases – and the results have been extrapolated to women. This is why there’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of better defining the characteristics specific to each sleep disorder and how they relate to each sex,” said Dr. Cano. “Being able to identify the relationship between the different sex-related phenotypes and each condition will allow us to take a precision medicine approach tailored to a patient’s particular characteristics.”

As Dr. Merino put it: “The approach to sleep disorders is always personalized. The patient’s sex, in and of itself, doesn’t have that great of an impact on this approach. What does have a great impact are women’s life stages. There are some subtle differences here and there, such as types of continuous positive airway pressure machines. The ones that are designed for women have masks that are better suited to their facial features, which differ from men’s.”

A precision medicine approach can be taken to treat any sleep disorder. For insomnia, the approach allows healthcare professionals to employ an appropriate cognitive-behavioral therapy plan or to determine which drugs would be more effective – all on the basis of symptoms and the characteristics of the particular case. Regarding sleep apnea, Dr. Cano explained, “taking into account the different anatomical characteristics or the higher prevalence of positional apnea will also allow us to offer different therapeutic alternatives to continuous positive airway pressure, such as mandibular advancement devices or positional therapy devices.”

Women should be encouraged to develop good sleep habits. These include taking circadian rhythms into account and aligning lifestyles accordingly. It also means going to bed earlier than the men in the household. For menopausal women, recommended sleep habits range from keeping their bedroom at an ideal temperature, following a diet rich in vegetables to avoid becoming overweight, and exercising daily. While this advice may be more applicable to teenagers, adults can benefit from it as well: Electronic devices should be turned off well before bedtime. Whether from a phone screen, a tablet screen, or a TV screen, the light emitted can keep one awake, which can be harmful to one’s health.

Dr. Cano and Dr. Merino disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com. This article was translated from the Medscape Spanish edition.

MADRID – Because of the hormone changes that occur throughout their lives, women experience sleep problems that differ significantly from those experienced by men. Indeed, 75%-84% of pregnant women don’t sleep well during the third trimester, and up to 80% of women in menopause have symptoms that prevent them from getting a good night’s rest. For those seeking a precision medicine approach, the challenge is to identify the relationship between the different sex-related phenotypes and the sleep conditions.

Irene Cano, MD, PhD, is the coordinator of the sleep department at the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery. She spoke with this news organization about the significant impact of hormones on sleep disorders in women.

“Reproductive hormones like estrogen and progesterone play a meaningful role in brain functions – not only those linked to the regulation of reproduction but also other physiological processes related to the regulation of circadian rhythms, cognitive performance, mood, and sleep. In addition, other hormones – for example, prolactin, growth hormone, cortisol, and melatonin – have sex-dependent effects on sleep,” Dr. Cano said.

Girls start puberty at a younger age than boys. As girls enter adolescence, they go to bed later and waking up earlier. So, girls are getting less than the 10 hours of sleep that they should be getting at this stage of life. The result is sleep debt, which gives rise to various problems: poor academic performance, ADHD, obesity, and metabolic problems, to name a few. As Ariadna Farré, RN, a sleep unit nurse, noted at SEPAR’s Joint Winter Meeting, “schools would have to start morning classes later to get adolescents to perform well academically. As the situation is now, half of the kids are falling asleep at their desks.”
 

Influencing sleep quality

Dr. Cano explained the issue as follows: “In adolescence, along with changes in young women’s hormone levels, we begin to see differences between the sexes. The changes in levels of estrogens and progesterone are what’s responsible for the changes that, to some extent, cause those disturbances in the quality of our sleep and in the stages of our sleep.”

Thus, sleep can be affected by the changes in hormone level that occur during a menstrual cycle. Estrogens, which increase during the follicular phase, are associated with REM sleep, while progesterone, which increases during the luteal phase, increases non-REM sleep. “In the 3-6 days prior to menstruation, it’s quite common for a woman to report difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep, in connection with a decline in the percentage of time she spends in REM sleep, in the context of premenstrual syndrome. In addition,” Dr. Cano pointed out, “menstrual bleeding, that loss of blood, is associated with a drop in iron levels, making it more likely that the woman will experience restless legs syndrome.”
 

Cardiovascular system

This news organization also spoke with Milagros Merino, MD, PhD, president of the Spanish Sleep Society. “The consequences that lack of sleep have on the cardiovascular system – we’re essentially talking about certain arrhythmias, high blood pressure, thrombosis in some cases, stroke, and heart attack. Lack of sleep also gives rise to endocrine and metabolic issues, like overweight and being at a greater risk of developing diabetes. And as for mental health, we see, among other things, attention and memory problems, emotional lability, and irascibility. Numerous studies have confirmed all of this.”

Sleep apnea also deserves mention, Dr. Merino added. “Although this disorder is more common in men, we’re seeing it more and more now in women, along with the cardiovascular issues that it brings about.”

Another cardiovascular risk factor is insomnia, said Dr. Merino. “This sleep disorder is more prevalent in women. As hormones constantly change, the ways women sleep constantly change, from one stage of life to the next. They sleep one way in childhood, another way in adolescence, and yet another way in menopause.”
 

Sleep in pregnancy

During pregnancy, hormone changes are much more pronounced. During the first trimester, progesterone levels increase, making the woman drowsy. On top of that, her sleep is interrupted by more frequent visits to the bathroom as well as greater general discomfort.

In the second trimester, sleep interruptions persist but are not as bad as they were during the first 3 months. In the third trimester, 75%-84% of pregnant women find it difficult to sleep because of aches and pains, the need to urinate during the night, cramps, and heartburn.

“Major physical changes are happening. When the bladder gets compressed, the woman has to get up and go to the bathroom. There’s an interruption in her sleep,” Ms. Farré explained. In addition, as the pregnancy progresses, the woman gains weight and her body mass index (BMI) increases, which can bring on obstructive sleep apnea, high blood pressure, preeclampsia, and diabetes, if not closely monitored.

Other factors include concomitant treatments, such as contraceptives, and the stages of life, such as pregnancy and lactation. “When a woman of childbearing age has restless legs syndrome, more often than not, this means that she has an iron deficiency that needs to be treated with oral iron supplements,” said Dr. Merino. “However, there are few medications that can be given to a pregnant woman – and RLS is relatively common during pregnancy. So, we have to turn to oral or intravenous iron supplements. Yet another matter is narcolepsy. In these cases, all medications have to be stopped during pregnancy and lactation, as they can be harmful to the baby.”
 

Sleep apnea

While one in five menopausal women are asymptomatic, the others experience mild to severe symptoms of apnea that frequently interrupt their sleep. In this stage of life, which begins around age 50 years, the hormones that had provided protection against sleep disruptions start to decrease. As a result, there is a rise in sleep problems, especially insomnia, breathing-related sleep disorders (for example, apnea), and restless legs syndrome.

The prevalence of breathing-related sleep disorders during menopause is attributable to weight gain, the drop in levels of estrogens, and the redistribution of adipose tissue in the body. Other factors also increase a woman’s risk of experiencing apnea. They range from stress, depression, and other psychological and psychiatric conditions to health status, medication use, and simply the fact of getting older. “Sleep apnea is more common in men than in premenopausal women. The numbers even out, though, when we compare men against menopausal women,” Dr. Cano noted.

In women, symptoms of sleep apnea are frequently attributed to menopause. There is some overlap: insomnia, headache, irritability, low mood, decreased libido, fatigue during the day, and feeling sleepy. Only much later is the woman’s condition correctly diagnosed as sleep apnea. So, even though presenting with the same complaints, a man will be diagnosed with sleep apnea sooner than a woman will – in some cases, around 10 years sooner.

“On the other hand, we’d always thought that, in menopause, insomnia was characterized by awakenings occurring throughout the second half of the night. But perhaps what happens more often is that women are regularly waking up repeatedly over the course of the entire night, as opposed to experiencing a wakefulness that starts early and lasts throughout the night or having a problem falling asleep to begin with,” said Dr. Merino. “The good news is that hormone replacement therapy can get things back to the way they were. And getting better sleep will help to overcome insomnia.”
 

Socioeconomic status

Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. It affects 10%-20% of people, mostly women. “The fact that sleep problems are more prevalent in women can be explained by the fact that among women, there is a higher incidence of conditions that disrupt sleep, such as depression,” said Dr. Cano.

“Insomnia is much more common in adult women than adult men. And at menopause, women find that the insomnia only gets worse,” Dr. Merino added. “But around that same age, 50 years old, what we start to see more frequently in men is REM sleep behavior disorder, a type of parasomnia that’s a risk marker of degenerative nerve diseases.”

Dr. Cano emphasized one finding that, though basic, is not well known. “After adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics, the difference between the sexes in reporting sleep problems is cut in half. This suggests that an important factor that explains why there are differences in sleep problems between the sexes is that women’s socioeconomic status is generally lower than men’s.

“As for sleep apnea in particular,” Dr. Cano continued, “the kinds of symptoms that women have can be different from the classic ones seen in men – snoring, pauses in breathing, and daytime sleepiness; women are being underdiagnosed, and when they are diagnosed, that’s happening at a later age and at a higher BMI.”

So, it’s alarming that, as reported by SEPAR, 90% of women with obstructive sleep apnea are not being diagnosed.
 

Precision medicine approach

“The majority of research studies on sleep apnea have focused on men – given the prevalence of cases – and the results have been extrapolated to women. This is why there’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of better defining the characteristics specific to each sleep disorder and how they relate to each sex,” said Dr. Cano. “Being able to identify the relationship between the different sex-related phenotypes and each condition will allow us to take a precision medicine approach tailored to a patient’s particular characteristics.”

As Dr. Merino put it: “The approach to sleep disorders is always personalized. The patient’s sex, in and of itself, doesn’t have that great of an impact on this approach. What does have a great impact are women’s life stages. There are some subtle differences here and there, such as types of continuous positive airway pressure machines. The ones that are designed for women have masks that are better suited to their facial features, which differ from men’s.”

A precision medicine approach can be taken to treat any sleep disorder. For insomnia, the approach allows healthcare professionals to employ an appropriate cognitive-behavioral therapy plan or to determine which drugs would be more effective – all on the basis of symptoms and the characteristics of the particular case. Regarding sleep apnea, Dr. Cano explained, “taking into account the different anatomical characteristics or the higher prevalence of positional apnea will also allow us to offer different therapeutic alternatives to continuous positive airway pressure, such as mandibular advancement devices or positional therapy devices.”

Women should be encouraged to develop good sleep habits. These include taking circadian rhythms into account and aligning lifestyles accordingly. It also means going to bed earlier than the men in the household. For menopausal women, recommended sleep habits range from keeping their bedroom at an ideal temperature, following a diet rich in vegetables to avoid becoming overweight, and exercising daily. While this advice may be more applicable to teenagers, adults can benefit from it as well: Electronic devices should be turned off well before bedtime. Whether from a phone screen, a tablet screen, or a TV screen, the light emitted can keep one awake, which can be harmful to one’s health.

Dr. Cano and Dr. Merino disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com. This article was translated from the Medscape Spanish edition.

Almost half of Americans report feeling daytime sleepiness on at least 3 days per week. For most patients, this sleepiness results from insufficient nighttime sleep. But a minority of these patients have narcolepsy, a chronic neurologic disorder that impairs the brain’s control of sleep-wake cycles. This disorder often goes undiagnosed, but neurologists can make a significant difference by learning how to recognize and treat it.

What is narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and sudden attacks of sleep. Patients have difficulty staying awake for long periods of time, and the disorder can make performing daily tasks difficult. Problems with concentration and alertness are common.

Narcolepsy is considered to have two subtypes. Patients with narcolepsy type 1 also have cataplexy, a sudden loss of muscle tone. Attacks of cataplexy are triggered by strong, usually positive, emotions. These attacks have manifestations ranging from slurred speech to complete weakness of most muscles. Patients with narcolepsy type 2, however, do not have cataplexy.

Dysregulation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is when most dreaming occurs, is another symptom of narcolepsy. The transition to REM sleep is quicker in patients with narcolepsy and usually occurs within 15 minutes of sleep onset. A related symptom is sleep paralysis, an inability to move while falling asleep or waking up. This symptom resembles a state that normally occurs during REM sleep.

Criteria and diagnosis

To receive a diagnosis of narcolepsy type 1, a patient must have EDS that persists for at least 3 months and at least one of the following two features: cataplexy and objective evidence of quick sleep onset and early start of REM sleep or low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels (that is, less than 110 pg/mL) of hypocretin. Hypocretin, also known as orexin, is a neuropeptide that regulates wakefulness and arousal.

Patients must meet five criteria to receive a diagnosis of narcolepsy type 2. They must have EDS that persists for at least 3 months. They must have test results that show quick sleep onset and early start of REM sleep. They must have no cataplexy. Their CSF levels of hypocretin must be normal or unknown. Finally, they must have no other conditions that provide a better explanation for their symptoms and test results.

“The diagnosis of narcolepsy is made primarily by history on the clinical features of the disorder,” said Michael J. Thorpy, MB, ChB, professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of the Sleep–Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. When narcolepsy is suspected, testing is required to confirm the diagnosis. The patient should undergo all-night polysomnographic (PSG) testing, followed by a daytime multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Measurement of CSF hypocretin can be diagnostic but is performed mainly in the research setting and is not common in the clinical setting, said Dr. Thorpy.

Patients with narcolepsy typically fall asleep in an average of less than 8 minutes during the nap opportunities of the MSLT. They also have at least two sleep-onset REM periods. “A new change in the diagnostic classification is that a sleep-onset REM period on the preceding night’s PSG can count as one of the two sleep-onset REM periods required for diagnosis,” said Dr. Thorpy.

“In the case of type 1 narcolepsy, the history is usually pretty clear, and the MSLT is usually positive, in the sense that it is consistent with a narcolepsy pattern,” said Thomas E. Scammell, MD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “The PSG is also important, because other factors that disrupt the patient’s nighttime sleep (such as obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movements) must be ruled out, especially in type 2 narcolepsy,” said Dr. Scammell.

Early sleep onset, late diagnosis

Diagnostic delay is a common problem for patients with narcolepsy. Although the median age of onset is 16 years, a patient typically does not receive the appropriate diagnosis until adulthood. “It takes, on average, somewhere between 8 and 12 years for a patient to get a diagnosis of narcolepsy,” said Dr. Thorpy. Growing awareness and an increase in the number of sleep disorder centers have reduced but not eliminated the diagnostic delay.

Children with narcolepsy are often misdiagnosed. “One of the most common misdiagnoses in childhood is ADHD, because sleepiness in children differs from that in adults,” said Dr. Thorpy. Sleepy children often become hyperactive and display increased impulsivity, he explained. Stimulants prescribed for ADHD tend to mask the symptoms of narcolepsy and delay the correct diagnosis. Mood disorders, behavioral disorders, and psychogenic disorders are other common misdiagnoses for children with narcolepsy.

But when it comes to adults, sometimes patients themselves contribute to the diagnostic delay. EDS is “such a pervasive feeling that I think a lot of people just don’t make much of it,” said Dr. Scammell. The symptom is easily ascribed to insufficient sleep or a difficult work schedule. “It may take them months to get to see a doctor,” said Dr. Scammell.

Behavioral treatments

Nonpharmacologic treatments are one component of care for patients with narcolepsy. Patients must maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule and ensure that they are in bed for no less than 8 hours per night, said Dr. Thorpy. Taking no more than two daytime naps of less than 20 minutes each can help relieve some of the sleepiness, he added.

In addition to ensuring an adequate amount of sleep, it is important to promote good quality sleep, said Dr. Scammell. To do this, clinicians should address any conditions such as sleep apnea that disrupt patients’ sleep, he added.

Patients also tend to avoid situations that are likely to entail the emotional stimuli that could precipitate cataplexy. Some avoid laughter or try to suppress their emotions. “That’s not good,” said Kiran Maski, MD, MPH, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and neurologist and sleep physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We worry that that might be a risk factor for depression or social isolation.” Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help patients with narcolepsy gradually increase their comfort with and exposure to social situations.

Although behavioral treatments are helpful, they are not sufficient to control all the symptoms of narcolepsy. Most patients require pharmacologic treatments, which are the most effective treatments for narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy.

Pharmacologic treatments

Previously, neurologists relied on the stimulants methylphenidate and amphetamine, which primarily treated patients’ EDS. But the field is moving away from these drugs because of their tendency to induce side effects and their potential for abuse, said Dr. Thorpy. In this context, modafinil and armodafinil became the mainstay for promoting alertness in patients with narcolepsy.

In recent years, newer medications have emerged that have slightly greater efficacy and better safety profiles than modafinil and armodafinil. Solriamfetol (Sunosi, Jazz Pharmaceuticals), for example, is effective for EDS but does not affect cataplexy. Pitolisant (Wakix, Harmony Biosciences), on the other hand, effectively treats EDS and cataplexy.

Sodium oxybate (Xyrem, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) is the only medication that treats all the symptoms of narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy. “That treats the sleepiness, the cataplexy, and the disturbed nocturnal sleep,” he added. Sodium oxybate also appears to reduce sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and disturbed dreams.

A potential concern about sodium oxybate, which has been used since approximately 2000, is its high sodium load. A new formulation called low-sodium oxybate (Xywav, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) “has a slightly better safety profile, particularly in people who have cardiovascular or renal disease,” said Dr. Thorpy. “This is tending to take over the role of regular sodium oxybate.”

Many clinicians who treat patients with narcolepsy develop their own approaches, but the choice of treatment generally depends on the patient’s symptoms, said Dr. Scammell. Modafinil is a good first choice for patients with mild to moderate sleepiness, he added. Pitolisant is another good choice for these patients but is more expensive. Both drugs are well tolerated.

Clinicians can consider solriamfetol and amphetamine for patients with moderate to severe sleepiness. “I generally consider the oxybates to be a second line,” said Dr. Scammell. Although these drugs may be the most effective, and they do help patients a great deal, they have a higher prevalence of side effects and are more expensive, he added. “If we can get good results with something gentle and simple like modafinil, that would be great.”

“There are differences of opinion as to what the first-line treatments are,” said Dr. Thorpy. Some patients prefer to use the traditional stimulants as first-line treatments, but others prefer to avoid them because of their adverse effects. They favor the newer, and unfortunately more expensive, medications instead. But there is no consensus among clinicians about which of the newer medications to use. “There’s no standard treatment, and it’s very hard to develop an algorithm that is acceptable to most physicians treating patients with narcolepsy,” said Dr. Thorpy. Treatment response varies, as well. Some patients respond extremely well to treatment, but clinical trials indicate that even optimal therapy helps patients achieve about 70% of the normal level of alertness. “If they’re sedentary, sitting in a boring meeting or at the computer, they can still fall asleep, even with our current medications,” said Dr. Scammell.

“The hardest symptom of all to treat is the EDS,” agreed Dr. Thorpy. Most patients cannot be treated with one medication alone, and polypharmacy tends to be necessary, he added. Typically, this means the addition of another medication to the regimen to maximize alertness. For other patients, cataplexy is difficult to control, and adding an anticataplectic medication is appropriate. Still, most patients can control their cataplexy with one drug, either oxybate or pitolisant, said Dr. Thorpy.

Investigational treatments

Researchers are trying to develop new medicines with greater potency, and several medications are under investigation. Early studies have shown that reboxetine, an antidepressant medication that affects dopamine and norepinephrine activity, is an effective treatment for EDS and cataplexy. Ongoing phase 3 studies are examining reboxetine for EDS. Another drug known as FT-218 is a once-nightly formulation of sodium oxybate, unlike the twice-nightly formulations of the drug that currently are available. In a phase 3 trial, the drug was associated with significant improvements in wakefulness and reductions in attacks of cataplexy. Avadel, which is developing the drug, submitted it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval in 2021, but the agency has not yet made a decision about it.

Researchers and patients alike have high hopes for medications that activate the orexin receptors. Orexin stimulates the wake-promoting neurons in the brain. Narcolepsy, and particularly narcolepsy type 1, is characterized by a loss of hypocretin cells in the central nervous system. The loss of these cells promotes sleepiness and disturbed REM sleep. To counteract this loss of cells, several companies are investigating new orexin agonists.

One such medication is TAK-994, which was developed by Takeda. The drug showed great promise for treating EDS and cataplexy, said Dr. Thorpy. But when phase 3 studies suggested that TAK-994 was associated with hepatotoxicity, the company terminated the studies. Nevertheless, other orexin agonists, including Takeda’s TAK-861, are under investigation.

“If we can restore orexin signaling, it could be like giving insulin to type 1 diabetics,” said Dr. Scammell. This class of medications could provide substantial improvements in sleepiness and other symptoms, he added. “I think when orexin agonists become available, it’s going to be quite transformative.” But these drugs are still in early development and will not be available in clinical practice for several years.

Common psychological comorbidities

Certain comorbidities are prevalent among patients with narcolepsy, and psychiatric disorders tend to be the most common. These comorbidities may complicate the management of narcolepsy. Nevertheless, they often are significant enough to require management in their own right, said Dr. Thorpy.

Depression is likely twice as common among patients with narcolepsy than among the general population, said Dr. Scammell. “Whether this is an actual neurobiologic feature of the disease, or whether it is just a reaction to having a challenging disorder isn’t entirely clear,” he added. “But it doesn’t get the attention or treatment that it deserves.”

Partnering with a psychologist or psychiatrist is important because many treatments can exacerbate mood disorders, said Dr. Maski. In general, stimulants, for example, can worsen depression and anxiety and are associated with increased suicide risk. “We oftentimes are using high-dose stimulants in patients, so mood has to be really carefully monitored and managed,” Dr. Maski added.

Cases of depression and suicidal ideation were reported in clinical trials of sodium oxybate. Although these serious adverse events were rare, patients must be monitored very closely even on treatments specifically approved for narcolepsy, said Dr. Maski. Mood disturbances are reported less frequently with modafinil and pitolisant than with stimulants, she noted.

Many times, patients need to take an antidepressant medication, but these drugs could affect the medicines administered for narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy. Pitolisant, in particular, may be adversely affected by current antidepressant medications. The only remedies are to change from pitolisant to another narcolepsy medication or to use an antidepressant that does not have histamine 1 receptor antagonism or affect the QTc interval.

Anxiety also is prevalent among patients with narcolepsy, and it can be worsened by traditional stimulants. These drugs also can increase the likelihood of irritability or obsessive-compulsive tendencies. “Traditional stimulants would be best avoided in these patients who have significant anxiety,” said Dr. Thorpy.

The social burden of narcolepsy

The burden of narcolepsy extends beyond psychiatric comorbidities into the social sphere. “Patients with narcolepsy do have greater difficulties in terms of social and interpersonal relationships,” said Dr. Thorpy. The disorder reduces patients’ quality of life, and educational difficulties and job loss are common in this population. “It’s a lifelong, incurable disorder, and these patients suffer an immense burden throughout their life because of the sleepiness that … affects their cognitive abilities,” said Dr. Thorpy.

“There’s an increased reporting of what probably amounts to social isolation,” said Dr. Maski. Patients often report that they must prioritize activities or events because they do not have the energy or alertness to participate in all of them. For instance, adolescents with narcolepsy frequently say that they must forgo after-school extracurricular activities because they need to prioritize studying and getting enough sleep. “Those priorities take away from their normal social life and events that they would like to participate in,” said Dr. Maski.

Another problem is that patients have the impression that others do not understand their condition. They are afraid that they will be perceived as lazy, uninterested, or unmotivated if they fall asleep. “Sometimes they withdraw from social events because they don’t want to be perceived in such a way,” said Dr. Maski. She and her colleagues encourage patients to participate in selected after-school events and to engage in social activities they find meaningful to maintain social networks.

An unpublished study of more than 300 patients with narcolepsy examined the effect of the disorder on patients’ social lives. At the end of the day, many patients “crash and burn,” said Dr. Scammell. Consequently, they do not have as much energy for social activities.

This lack of energy affects patients’ social relationships. The study suggests that patients with narcolepsy do not have as many friends as the general population does. Nevertheless, the frequency of close relationships and marriage was similar between patients with narcolepsy and the general population. “What people are doing is putting their energy into these close relationships, rather than having lots of friends and socializing a lot,” said Dr. Scammell. “I found that heartening, that people were doing their best and developed those close relationships,” which are vitally important for many reasons, he added.

The study, which has been submitted for publication, also asked patients about their sex lives. Many patients reported having had cataplexy during sex, and others reported that their medications caused problems with their sex lives. “Their doctors never ask about these things, and many patients actually would like their doctor to ask about them more,” said Dr. Scammell.

In addition, narcolepsy significantly affects a patient’s ability to drive. Patients with narcolepsy have a three- to fourfold increased risk of car accidents, said Dr. Scammell. This increased risk likely results from patients’ EDS.

But as important as this issue is for patients’ lives, there is no consensus on how to counsel patients about driving, said Dr. Maski. “For instance, it is not really clear if there is value in doing a maintenance of wakefulness test before allowing patients with narcolepsy to drive,” she said. The test is not validated in children or adolescents, which raises questions about how to advise beginning drivers with narcolepsy. “It’s not really clear that passing your maintenance of wakefulness test increases your safety behind the wheel,” said Dr. Maski.

“It’s the rare person with narcolepsy who can easily and safely do a 2-hour drive by themselves,” said Dr. Scammell. Patients must determine what their own limits are, and it is important for clinicians to discuss reasonable limits honestly with their patients. “I almost never would push to have somebody’s license taken away,” said Dr. Scammell. “But there are patients who only can drive around town for short errands, and if it’s anything more than half an hour, they start getting drowsy.”

There is a need for a public awareness campaign about narcolepsy, Dr. Scammell added. Such a campaign was carried out in Italy several years ago, and it included cartoons and TV segments. “It got a lot of people’s attention, and there was a real spike in new and correct diagnoses of narcolepsy,” said Dr. Scammell. But such a broad campaign is expensive, while narcolepsy is rare, and it might not be feasible to reach out to the general population. “But I certainly think it’s worth targeting doctors who are likely to see patients with sleepiness: neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists, and primary care doctors,” said Dr. Scammell.

Almost half of Americans report feeling daytime sleepiness on at least 3 days per week. For most patients, this sleepiness results from insufficient nighttime sleep. But a minority of these patients have narcolepsy, a chronic neurologic disorder that impairs the brain’s control of sleep-wake cycles. This disorder often goes undiagnosed, but neurologists can make a significant difference by learning how to recognize and treat it.

What is narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and sudden attacks of sleep. Patients have difficulty staying awake for long periods of time, and the disorder can make performing daily tasks difficult. Problems with concentration and alertness are common.

Narcolepsy is considered to have two subtypes. Patients with narcolepsy type 1 also have cataplexy, a sudden loss of muscle tone. Attacks of cataplexy are triggered by strong, usually positive, emotions. These attacks have manifestations ranging from slurred speech to complete weakness of most muscles. Patients with narcolepsy type 2, however, do not have cataplexy.

Dysregulation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is when most dreaming occurs, is another symptom of narcolepsy. The transition to REM sleep is quicker in patients with narcolepsy and usually occurs within 15 minutes of sleep onset. A related symptom is sleep paralysis, an inability to move while falling asleep or waking up. This symptom resembles a state that normally occurs during REM sleep.

Criteria and diagnosis

To receive a diagnosis of narcolepsy type 1, a patient must have EDS that persists for at least 3 months and at least one of the following two features: cataplexy and objective evidence of quick sleep onset and early start of REM sleep or low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels (that is, less than 110 pg/mL) of hypocretin. Hypocretin, also known as orexin, is a neuropeptide that regulates wakefulness and arousal.

Patients must meet five criteria to receive a diagnosis of narcolepsy type 2. They must have EDS that persists for at least 3 months. They must have test results that show quick sleep onset and early start of REM sleep. They must have no cataplexy. Their CSF levels of hypocretin must be normal or unknown. Finally, they must have no other conditions that provide a better explanation for their symptoms and test results.

“The diagnosis of narcolepsy is made primarily by history on the clinical features of the disorder,” said Michael J. Thorpy, MB, ChB, professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of the Sleep–Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. When narcolepsy is suspected, testing is required to confirm the diagnosis. The patient should undergo all-night polysomnographic (PSG) testing, followed by a daytime multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Measurement of CSF hypocretin can be diagnostic but is performed mainly in the research setting and is not common in the clinical setting, said Dr. Thorpy.

Patients with narcolepsy typically fall asleep in an average of less than 8 minutes during the nap opportunities of the MSLT. They also have at least two sleep-onset REM periods. “A new change in the diagnostic classification is that a sleep-onset REM period on the preceding night’s PSG can count as one of the two sleep-onset REM periods required for diagnosis,” said Dr. Thorpy.

“In the case of type 1 narcolepsy, the history is usually pretty clear, and the MSLT is usually positive, in the sense that it is consistent with a narcolepsy pattern,” said Thomas E. Scammell, MD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “The PSG is also important, because other factors that disrupt the patient’s nighttime sleep (such as obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movements) must be ruled out, especially in type 2 narcolepsy,” said Dr. Scammell.

Early sleep onset, late diagnosis

Diagnostic delay is a common problem for patients with narcolepsy. Although the median age of onset is 16 years, a patient typically does not receive the appropriate diagnosis until adulthood. “It takes, on average, somewhere between 8 and 12 years for a patient to get a diagnosis of narcolepsy,” said Dr. Thorpy. Growing awareness and an increase in the number of sleep disorder centers have reduced but not eliminated the diagnostic delay.

Children with narcolepsy are often misdiagnosed. “One of the most common misdiagnoses in childhood is ADHD, because sleepiness in children differs from that in adults,” said Dr. Thorpy. Sleepy children often become hyperactive and display increased impulsivity, he explained. Stimulants prescribed for ADHD tend to mask the symptoms of narcolepsy and delay the correct diagnosis. Mood disorders, behavioral disorders, and psychogenic disorders are other common misdiagnoses for children with narcolepsy.

But when it comes to adults, sometimes patients themselves contribute to the diagnostic delay. EDS is “such a pervasive feeling that I think a lot of people just don’t make much of it,” said Dr. Scammell. The symptom is easily ascribed to insufficient sleep or a difficult work schedule. “It may take them months to get to see a doctor,” said Dr. Scammell.

Behavioral treatments

Nonpharmacologic treatments are one component of care for patients with narcolepsy. Patients must maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule and ensure that they are in bed for no less than 8 hours per night, said Dr. Thorpy. Taking no more than two daytime naps of less than 20 minutes each can help relieve some of the sleepiness, he added.

In addition to ensuring an adequate amount of sleep, it is important to promote good quality sleep, said Dr. Scammell. To do this, clinicians should address any conditions such as sleep apnea that disrupt patients’ sleep, he added.

Patients also tend to avoid situations that are likely to entail the emotional stimuli that could precipitate cataplexy. Some avoid laughter or try to suppress their emotions. “That’s not good,” said Kiran Maski, MD, MPH, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and neurologist and sleep physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We worry that that might be a risk factor for depression or social isolation.” Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help patients with narcolepsy gradually increase their comfort with and exposure to social situations.

Although behavioral treatments are helpful, they are not sufficient to control all the symptoms of narcolepsy. Most patients require pharmacologic treatments, which are the most effective treatments for narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy.

Pharmacologic treatments

Previously, neurologists relied on the stimulants methylphenidate and amphetamine, which primarily treated patients’ EDS. But the field is moving away from these drugs because of their tendency to induce side effects and their potential for abuse, said Dr. Thorpy. In this context, modafinil and armodafinil became the mainstay for promoting alertness in patients with narcolepsy.

In recent years, newer medications have emerged that have slightly greater efficacy and better safety profiles than modafinil and armodafinil. Solriamfetol (Sunosi, Jazz Pharmaceuticals), for example, is effective for EDS but does not affect cataplexy. Pitolisant (Wakix, Harmony Biosciences), on the other hand, effectively treats EDS and cataplexy.

Sodium oxybate (Xyrem, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) is the only medication that treats all the symptoms of narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy. “That treats the sleepiness, the cataplexy, and the disturbed nocturnal sleep,” he added. Sodium oxybate also appears to reduce sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and disturbed dreams.

A potential concern about sodium oxybate, which has been used since approximately 2000, is its high sodium load. A new formulation called low-sodium oxybate (Xywav, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) “has a slightly better safety profile, particularly in people who have cardiovascular or renal disease,” said Dr. Thorpy. “This is tending to take over the role of regular sodium oxybate.”

Many clinicians who treat patients with narcolepsy develop their own approaches, but the choice of treatment generally depends on the patient’s symptoms, said Dr. Scammell. Modafinil is a good first choice for patients with mild to moderate sleepiness, he added. Pitolisant is another good choice for these patients but is more expensive. Both drugs are well tolerated.

Clinicians can consider solriamfetol and amphetamine for patients with moderate to severe sleepiness. “I generally consider the oxybates to be a second line,” said Dr. Scammell. Although these drugs may be the most effective, and they do help patients a great deal, they have a higher prevalence of side effects and are more expensive, he added. “If we can get good results with something gentle and simple like modafinil, that would be great.”

“There are differences of opinion as to what the first-line treatments are,” said Dr. Thorpy. Some patients prefer to use the traditional stimulants as first-line treatments, but others prefer to avoid them because of their adverse effects. They favor the newer, and unfortunately more expensive, medications instead. But there is no consensus among clinicians about which of the newer medications to use. “There’s no standard treatment, and it’s very hard to develop an algorithm that is acceptable to most physicians treating patients with narcolepsy,” said Dr. Thorpy. Treatment response varies, as well. Some patients respond extremely well to treatment, but clinical trials indicate that even optimal therapy helps patients achieve about 70% of the normal level of alertness. “If they’re sedentary, sitting in a boring meeting or at the computer, they can still fall asleep, even with our current medications,” said Dr. Scammell.

“The hardest symptom of all to treat is the EDS,” agreed Dr. Thorpy. Most patients cannot be treated with one medication alone, and polypharmacy tends to be necessary, he added. Typically, this means the addition of another medication to the regimen to maximize alertness. For other patients, cataplexy is difficult to control, and adding an anticataplectic medication is appropriate. Still, most patients can control their cataplexy with one drug, either oxybate or pitolisant, said Dr. Thorpy.

Investigational treatments

Researchers are trying to develop new medicines with greater potency, and several medications are under investigation. Early studies have shown that reboxetine, an antidepressant medication that affects dopamine and norepinephrine activity, is an effective treatment for EDS and cataplexy. Ongoing phase 3 studies are examining reboxetine for EDS. Another drug known as FT-218 is a once-nightly formulation of sodium oxybate, unlike the twice-nightly formulations of the drug that currently are available. In a phase 3 trial, the drug was associated with significant improvements in wakefulness and reductions in attacks of cataplexy. Avadel, which is developing the drug, submitted it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval in 2021, but the agency has not yet made a decision about it.

Researchers and patients alike have high hopes for medications that activate the orexin receptors. Orexin stimulates the wake-promoting neurons in the brain. Narcolepsy, and particularly narcolepsy type 1, is characterized by a loss of hypocretin cells in the central nervous system. The loss of these cells promotes sleepiness and disturbed REM sleep. To counteract this loss of cells, several companies are investigating new orexin agonists.

One such medication is TAK-994, which was developed by Takeda. The drug showed great promise for treating EDS and cataplexy, said Dr. Thorpy. But when phase 3 studies suggested that TAK-994 was associated with hepatotoxicity, the company terminated the studies. Nevertheless, other orexin agonists, including Takeda’s TAK-861, are under investigation.

“If we can restore orexin signaling, it could be like giving insulin to type 1 diabetics,” said Dr. Scammell. This class of medications could provide substantial improvements in sleepiness and other symptoms, he added. “I think when orexin agonists become available, it’s going to be quite transformative.” But these drugs are still in early development and will not be available in clinical practice for several years.

Common psychological comorbidities

Certain comorbidities are prevalent among patients with narcolepsy, and psychiatric disorders tend to be the most common. These comorbidities may complicate the management of narcolepsy. Nevertheless, they often are significant enough to require management in their own right, said Dr. Thorpy.

Depression is likely twice as common among patients with narcolepsy than among the general population, said Dr. Scammell. “Whether this is an actual neurobiologic feature of the disease, or whether it is just a reaction to having a challenging disorder isn’t entirely clear,” he added. “But it doesn’t get the attention or treatment that it deserves.”

Partnering with a psychologist or psychiatrist is important because many treatments can exacerbate mood disorders, said Dr. Maski. In general, stimulants, for example, can worsen depression and anxiety and are associated with increased suicide risk. “We oftentimes are using high-dose stimulants in patients, so mood has to be really carefully monitored and managed,” Dr. Maski added.

Cases of depression and suicidal ideation were reported in clinical trials of sodium oxybate. Although these serious adverse events were rare, patients must be monitored very closely even on treatments specifically approved for narcolepsy, said Dr. Maski. Mood disturbances are reported less frequently with modafinil and pitolisant than with stimulants, she noted.

Many times, patients need to take an antidepressant medication, but these drugs could affect the medicines administered for narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy. Pitolisant, in particular, may be adversely affected by current antidepressant medications. The only remedies are to change from pitolisant to another narcolepsy medication or to use an antidepressant that does not have histamine 1 receptor antagonism or affect the QTc interval.

Anxiety also is prevalent among patients with narcolepsy, and it can be worsened by traditional stimulants. These drugs also can increase the likelihood of irritability or obsessive-compulsive tendencies. “Traditional stimulants would be best avoided in these patients who have significant anxiety,” said Dr. Thorpy.

The social burden of narcolepsy

The burden of narcolepsy extends beyond psychiatric comorbidities into the social sphere. “Patients with narcolepsy do have greater difficulties in terms of social and interpersonal relationships,” said Dr. Thorpy. The disorder reduces patients’ quality of life, and educational difficulties and job loss are common in this population. “It’s a lifelong, incurable disorder, and these patients suffer an immense burden throughout their life because of the sleepiness that … affects their cognitive abilities,” said Dr. Thorpy.

“There’s an increased reporting of what probably amounts to social isolation,” said Dr. Maski. Patients often report that they must prioritize activities or events because they do not have the energy or alertness to participate in all of them. For instance, adolescents with narcolepsy frequently say that they must forgo after-school extracurricular activities because they need to prioritize studying and getting enough sleep. “Those priorities take away from their normal social life and events that they would like to participate in,” said Dr. Maski.

Another problem is that patients have the impression that others do not understand their condition. They are afraid that they will be perceived as lazy, uninterested, or unmotivated if they fall asleep. “Sometimes they withdraw from social events because they don’t want to be perceived in such a way,” said Dr. Maski. She and her colleagues encourage patients to participate in selected after-school events and to engage in social activities they find meaningful to maintain social networks.

An unpublished study of more than 300 patients with narcolepsy examined the effect of the disorder on patients’ social lives. At the end of the day, many patients “crash and burn,” said Dr. Scammell. Consequently, they do not have as much energy for social activities.

This lack of energy affects patients’ social relationships. The study suggests that patients with narcolepsy do not have as many friends as the general population does. Nevertheless, the frequency of close relationships and marriage was similar between patients with narcolepsy and the general population. “What people are doing is putting their energy into these close relationships, rather than having lots of friends and socializing a lot,” said Dr. Scammell. “I found that heartening, that people were doing their best and developed those close relationships,” which are vitally important for many reasons, he added.

The study, which has been submitted for publication, also asked patients about their sex lives. Many patients reported having had cataplexy during sex, and others reported that their medications caused problems with their sex lives. “Their doctors never ask about these things, and many patients actually would like their doctor to ask about them more,” said Dr. Scammell.

In addition, narcolepsy significantly affects a patient’s ability to drive. Patients with narcolepsy have a three- to fourfold increased risk of car accidents, said Dr. Scammell. This increased risk likely results from patients’ EDS.

But as important as this issue is for patients’ lives, there is no consensus on how to counsel patients about driving, said Dr. Maski. “For instance, it is not really clear if there is value in doing a maintenance of wakefulness test before allowing patients with narcolepsy to drive,” she said. The test is not validated in children or adolescents, which raises questions about how to advise beginning drivers with narcolepsy. “It’s not really clear that passing your maintenance of wakefulness test increases your safety behind the wheel,” said Dr. Maski.

“It’s the rare person with narcolepsy who can easily and safely do a 2-hour drive by themselves,” said Dr. Scammell. Patients must determine what their own limits are, and it is important for clinicians to discuss reasonable limits honestly with their patients. “I almost never would push to have somebody’s license taken away,” said Dr. Scammell. “But there are patients who only can drive around town for short errands, and if it’s anything more than half an hour, they start getting drowsy.”

There is a need for a public awareness campaign about narcolepsy, Dr. Scammell added. Such a campaign was carried out in Italy several years ago, and it included cartoons and TV segments. “It got a lot of people’s attention, and there was a real spike in new and correct diagnoses of narcolepsy,” said Dr. Scammell. But such a broad campaign is expensive, while narcolepsy is rare, and it might not be feasible to reach out to the general population. “But I certainly think it’s worth targeting doctors who are likely to see patients with sleepiness: neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists, and primary care doctors,” said Dr. Scammell.

Almost half of Americans report feeling daytime sleepiness on at least 3 days per week. For most patients, this sleepiness results from insufficient nighttime sleep. But a minority of these patients have narcolepsy, a chronic neurologic disorder that impairs the brain’s control of sleep-wake cycles. This disorder often goes undiagnosed, but neurologists can make a significant difference by learning how to recognize and treat it.

What is narcolepsy?

Narcolepsy is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and sudden attacks of sleep. Patients have difficulty staying awake for long periods of time, and the disorder can make performing daily tasks difficult. Problems with concentration and alertness are common.

Narcolepsy is considered to have two subtypes. Patients with narcolepsy type 1 also have cataplexy, a sudden loss of muscle tone. Attacks of cataplexy are triggered by strong, usually positive, emotions. These attacks have manifestations ranging from slurred speech to complete weakness of most muscles. Patients with narcolepsy type 2, however, do not have cataplexy.

Dysregulation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is when most dreaming occurs, is another symptom of narcolepsy. The transition to REM sleep is quicker in patients with narcolepsy and usually occurs within 15 minutes of sleep onset. A related symptom is sleep paralysis, an inability to move while falling asleep or waking up. This symptom resembles a state that normally occurs during REM sleep.

Criteria and diagnosis

To receive a diagnosis of narcolepsy type 1, a patient must have EDS that persists for at least 3 months and at least one of the following two features: cataplexy and objective evidence of quick sleep onset and early start of REM sleep or low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels (that is, less than 110 pg/mL) of hypocretin. Hypocretin, also known as orexin, is a neuropeptide that regulates wakefulness and arousal.

Patients must meet five criteria to receive a diagnosis of narcolepsy type 2. They must have EDS that persists for at least 3 months. They must have test results that show quick sleep onset and early start of REM sleep. They must have no cataplexy. Their CSF levels of hypocretin must be normal or unknown. Finally, they must have no other conditions that provide a better explanation for their symptoms and test results.

“The diagnosis of narcolepsy is made primarily by history on the clinical features of the disorder,” said Michael J. Thorpy, MB, ChB, professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of the Sleep–Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. When narcolepsy is suspected, testing is required to confirm the diagnosis. The patient should undergo all-night polysomnographic (PSG) testing, followed by a daytime multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Measurement of CSF hypocretin can be diagnostic but is performed mainly in the research setting and is not common in the clinical setting, said Dr. Thorpy.

Patients with narcolepsy typically fall asleep in an average of less than 8 minutes during the nap opportunities of the MSLT. They also have at least two sleep-onset REM periods. “A new change in the diagnostic classification is that a sleep-onset REM period on the preceding night’s PSG can count as one of the two sleep-onset REM periods required for diagnosis,” said Dr. Thorpy.

“In the case of type 1 narcolepsy, the history is usually pretty clear, and the MSLT is usually positive, in the sense that it is consistent with a narcolepsy pattern,” said Thomas E. Scammell, MD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “The PSG is also important, because other factors that disrupt the patient’s nighttime sleep (such as obstructive sleep apnea and periodic limb movements) must be ruled out, especially in type 2 narcolepsy,” said Dr. Scammell.

Early sleep onset, late diagnosis

Diagnostic delay is a common problem for patients with narcolepsy. Although the median age of onset is 16 years, a patient typically does not receive the appropriate diagnosis until adulthood. “It takes, on average, somewhere between 8 and 12 years for a patient to get a diagnosis of narcolepsy,” said Dr. Thorpy. Growing awareness and an increase in the number of sleep disorder centers have reduced but not eliminated the diagnostic delay.

Children with narcolepsy are often misdiagnosed. “One of the most common misdiagnoses in childhood is ADHD, because sleepiness in children differs from that in adults,” said Dr. Thorpy. Sleepy children often become hyperactive and display increased impulsivity, he explained. Stimulants prescribed for ADHD tend to mask the symptoms of narcolepsy and delay the correct diagnosis. Mood disorders, behavioral disorders, and psychogenic disorders are other common misdiagnoses for children with narcolepsy.

But when it comes to adults, sometimes patients themselves contribute to the diagnostic delay. EDS is “such a pervasive feeling that I think a lot of people just don’t make much of it,” said Dr. Scammell. The symptom is easily ascribed to insufficient sleep or a difficult work schedule. “It may take them months to get to see a doctor,” said Dr. Scammell.

Behavioral treatments

Nonpharmacologic treatments are one component of care for patients with narcolepsy. Patients must maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule and ensure that they are in bed for no less than 8 hours per night, said Dr. Thorpy. Taking no more than two daytime naps of less than 20 minutes each can help relieve some of the sleepiness, he added.

In addition to ensuring an adequate amount of sleep, it is important to promote good quality sleep, said Dr. Scammell. To do this, clinicians should address any conditions such as sleep apnea that disrupt patients’ sleep, he added.

Patients also tend to avoid situations that are likely to entail the emotional stimuli that could precipitate cataplexy. Some avoid laughter or try to suppress their emotions. “That’s not good,” said Kiran Maski, MD, MPH, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and neurologist and sleep physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We worry that that might be a risk factor for depression or social isolation.” Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help patients with narcolepsy gradually increase their comfort with and exposure to social situations.

Although behavioral treatments are helpful, they are not sufficient to control all the symptoms of narcolepsy. Most patients require pharmacologic treatments, which are the most effective treatments for narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy.

Pharmacologic treatments

Previously, neurologists relied on the stimulants methylphenidate and amphetamine, which primarily treated patients’ EDS. But the field is moving away from these drugs because of their tendency to induce side effects and their potential for abuse, said Dr. Thorpy. In this context, modafinil and armodafinil became the mainstay for promoting alertness in patients with narcolepsy.

In recent years, newer medications have emerged that have slightly greater efficacy and better safety profiles than modafinil and armodafinil. Solriamfetol (Sunosi, Jazz Pharmaceuticals), for example, is effective for EDS but does not affect cataplexy. Pitolisant (Wakix, Harmony Biosciences), on the other hand, effectively treats EDS and cataplexy.

Sodium oxybate (Xyrem, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) is the only medication that treats all the symptoms of narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy. “That treats the sleepiness, the cataplexy, and the disturbed nocturnal sleep,” he added. Sodium oxybate also appears to reduce sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and disturbed dreams.

A potential concern about sodium oxybate, which has been used since approximately 2000, is its high sodium load. A new formulation called low-sodium oxybate (Xywav, Jazz Pharmaceuticals) “has a slightly better safety profile, particularly in people who have cardiovascular or renal disease,” said Dr. Thorpy. “This is tending to take over the role of regular sodium oxybate.”

Many clinicians who treat patients with narcolepsy develop their own approaches, but the choice of treatment generally depends on the patient’s symptoms, said Dr. Scammell. Modafinil is a good first choice for patients with mild to moderate sleepiness, he added. Pitolisant is another good choice for these patients but is more expensive. Both drugs are well tolerated.

Clinicians can consider solriamfetol and amphetamine for patients with moderate to severe sleepiness. “I generally consider the oxybates to be a second line,” said Dr. Scammell. Although these drugs may be the most effective, and they do help patients a great deal, they have a higher prevalence of side effects and are more expensive, he added. “If we can get good results with something gentle and simple like modafinil, that would be great.”

“There are differences of opinion as to what the first-line treatments are,” said Dr. Thorpy. Some patients prefer to use the traditional stimulants as first-line treatments, but others prefer to avoid them because of their adverse effects. They favor the newer, and unfortunately more expensive, medications instead. But there is no consensus among clinicians about which of the newer medications to use. “There’s no standard treatment, and it’s very hard to develop an algorithm that is acceptable to most physicians treating patients with narcolepsy,” said Dr. Thorpy. Treatment response varies, as well. Some patients respond extremely well to treatment, but clinical trials indicate that even optimal therapy helps patients achieve about 70% of the normal level of alertness. “If they’re sedentary, sitting in a boring meeting or at the computer, they can still fall asleep, even with our current medications,” said Dr. Scammell.

“The hardest symptom of all to treat is the EDS,” agreed Dr. Thorpy. Most patients cannot be treated with one medication alone, and polypharmacy tends to be necessary, he added. Typically, this means the addition of another medication to the regimen to maximize alertness. For other patients, cataplexy is difficult to control, and adding an anticataplectic medication is appropriate. Still, most patients can control their cataplexy with one drug, either oxybate or pitolisant, said Dr. Thorpy.

Investigational treatments

Researchers are trying to develop new medicines with greater potency, and several medications are under investigation. Early studies have shown that reboxetine, an antidepressant medication that affects dopamine and norepinephrine activity, is an effective treatment for EDS and cataplexy. Ongoing phase 3 studies are examining reboxetine for EDS. Another drug known as FT-218 is a once-nightly formulation of sodium oxybate, unlike the twice-nightly formulations of the drug that currently are available. In a phase 3 trial, the drug was associated with significant improvements in wakefulness and reductions in attacks of cataplexy. Avadel, which is developing the drug, submitted it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval in 2021, but the agency has not yet made a decision about it.

Researchers and patients alike have high hopes for medications that activate the orexin receptors. Orexin stimulates the wake-promoting neurons in the brain. Narcolepsy, and particularly narcolepsy type 1, is characterized by a loss of hypocretin cells in the central nervous system. The loss of these cells promotes sleepiness and disturbed REM sleep. To counteract this loss of cells, several companies are investigating new orexin agonists.

One such medication is TAK-994, which was developed by Takeda. The drug showed great promise for treating EDS and cataplexy, said Dr. Thorpy. But when phase 3 studies suggested that TAK-994 was associated with hepatotoxicity, the company terminated the studies. Nevertheless, other orexin agonists, including Takeda’s TAK-861, are under investigation.

“If we can restore orexin signaling, it could be like giving insulin to type 1 diabetics,” said Dr. Scammell. This class of medications could provide substantial improvements in sleepiness and other symptoms, he added. “I think when orexin agonists become available, it’s going to be quite transformative.” But these drugs are still in early development and will not be available in clinical practice for several years.

Common psychological comorbidities

Certain comorbidities are prevalent among patients with narcolepsy, and psychiatric disorders tend to be the most common. These comorbidities may complicate the management of narcolepsy. Nevertheless, they often are significant enough to require management in their own right, said Dr. Thorpy.

Depression is likely twice as common among patients with narcolepsy than among the general population, said Dr. Scammell. “Whether this is an actual neurobiologic feature of the disease, or whether it is just a reaction to having a challenging disorder isn’t entirely clear,” he added. “But it doesn’t get the attention or treatment that it deserves.”

Partnering with a psychologist or psychiatrist is important because many treatments can exacerbate mood disorders, said Dr. Maski. In general, stimulants, for example, can worsen depression and anxiety and are associated with increased suicide risk. “We oftentimes are using high-dose stimulants in patients, so mood has to be really carefully monitored and managed,” Dr. Maski added.

Cases of depression and suicidal ideation were reported in clinical trials of sodium oxybate. Although these serious adverse events were rare, patients must be monitored very closely even on treatments specifically approved for narcolepsy, said Dr. Maski. Mood disturbances are reported less frequently with modafinil and pitolisant than with stimulants, she noted.

Many times, patients need to take an antidepressant medication, but these drugs could affect the medicines administered for narcolepsy, said Dr. Thorpy. Pitolisant, in particular, may be adversely affected by current antidepressant medications. The only remedies are to change from pitolisant to another narcolepsy medication or to use an antidepressant that does not have histamine 1 receptor antagonism or affect the QTc interval.

Anxiety also is prevalent among patients with narcolepsy, and it can be worsened by traditional stimulants. These drugs also can increase the likelihood of irritability or obsessive-compulsive tendencies. “Traditional stimulants would be best avoided in these patients who have significant anxiety,” said Dr. Thorpy.

The social burden of narcolepsy

The burden of narcolepsy extends beyond psychiatric comorbidities into the social sphere. “Patients with narcolepsy do have greater difficulties in terms of social and interpersonal relationships,” said Dr. Thorpy. The disorder reduces patients’ quality of life, and educational difficulties and job loss are common in this population. “It’s a lifelong, incurable disorder, and these patients suffer an immense burden throughout their life because of the sleepiness that … affects their cognitive abilities,” said Dr. Thorpy.

“There’s an increased reporting of what probably amounts to social isolation,” said Dr. Maski. Patients often report that they must prioritize activities or events because they do not have the energy or alertness to participate in all of them. For instance, adolescents with narcolepsy frequently say that they must forgo after-school extracurricular activities because they need to prioritize studying and getting enough sleep. “Those priorities take away from their normal social life and events that they would like to participate in,” said Dr. Maski.

Another problem is that patients have the impression that others do not understand their condition. They are afraid that they will be perceived as lazy, uninterested, or unmotivated if they fall asleep. “Sometimes they withdraw from social events because they don’t want to be perceived in such a way,” said Dr. Maski. She and her colleagues encourage patients to participate in selected after-school events and to engage in social activities they find meaningful to maintain social networks.

An unpublished study of more than 300 patients with narcolepsy examined the effect of the disorder on patients’ social lives. At the end of the day, many patients “crash and burn,” said Dr. Scammell. Consequently, they do not have as much energy for social activities.

This lack of energy affects patients’ social relationships. The study suggests that patients with narcolepsy do not have as many friends as the general population does. Nevertheless, the frequency of close relationships and marriage was similar between patients with narcolepsy and the general population. “What people are doing is putting their energy into these close relationships, rather than having lots of friends and socializing a lot,” said Dr. Scammell. “I found that heartening, that people were doing their best and developed those close relationships,” which are vitally important for many reasons, he added.

The study, which has been submitted for publication, also asked patients about their sex lives. Many patients reported having had cataplexy during sex, and others reported that their medications caused problems with their sex lives. “Their doctors never ask about these things, and many patients actually would like their doctor to ask about them more,” said Dr. Scammell.

In addition, narcolepsy significantly affects a patient’s ability to drive. Patients with narcolepsy have a three- to fourfold increased risk of car accidents, said Dr. Scammell. This increased risk likely results from patients’ EDS.

But as important as this issue is for patients’ lives, there is no consensus on how to counsel patients about driving, said Dr. Maski. “For instance, it is not really clear if there is value in doing a maintenance of wakefulness test before allowing patients with narcolepsy to drive,” she said. The test is not validated in children or adolescents, which raises questions about how to advise beginning drivers with narcolepsy. “It’s not really clear that passing your maintenance of wakefulness test increases your safety behind the wheel,” said Dr. Maski.

“It’s the rare person with narcolepsy who can easily and safely do a 2-hour drive by themselves,” said Dr. Scammell. Patients must determine what their own limits are, and it is important for clinicians to discuss reasonable limits honestly with their patients. “I almost never would push to have somebody’s license taken away,” said Dr. Scammell. “But there are patients who only can drive around town for short errands, and if it’s anything more than half an hour, they start getting drowsy.”

There is a need for a public awareness campaign about narcolepsy, Dr. Scammell added. Such a campaign was carried out in Italy several years ago, and it included cartoons and TV segments. “It got a lot of people’s attention, and there was a real spike in new and correct diagnoses of narcolepsy,” said Dr. Scammell. But such a broad campaign is expensive, while narcolepsy is rare, and it might not be feasible to reach out to the general population. “But I certainly think it’s worth targeting doctors who are likely to see patients with sleepiness: neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists, and primary care doctors,” said Dr. Scammell.