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Severity of asthma associated with insomnia in adolescents

Adolescents with severe asthma reported insufficient sleep, poor sleep hygiene, and clinically significant insomnia, according to a recent study.

“This exploratory study extends previous reports that many adolescents obtain insufficient sleep to adolescents with asthma, which demonstrated that more adolescents with asthma reported insufficient sleep than adolescents without asthma,” the researchers wrote.

Lisa J. Meltzer, PhD, of National Jewish Health in Denver, and colleagues collected data from an online survey that included adolescents (n=298; 51% boys) aged 12 to 17 years (48% with asthma). They found that sleep duration did not vary between four asthma severity groups. More adolescents with severe asthma, however, reported insufficient weekday sleep (44%) compared with adolescents without asthma (31%).

Lisa J. Meltzer

The researchers also observed significant asthma group differences for sleep hygiene, with poorer sleep hygiene among patients with severe asthma.

In addition, almost twice as many adolescents with severe asthma reported clinically significant insomnia compared with adolescents with mild or no asthma, the researchers wrote.

Insomnia severity and asthma severity also were significant predictors of daytime sleepiness, according to researchers. The severity of asthma, however, only accounted for 2% of the variance compared with 28% of the variance determined by insomnia severity.

“Further research also is needed to help understand the mechanisms and additional outcomes that may be related to deficient sleep and insomnia in adolescents with asthma,” the researchers concluded.

Disclosure: See the study for a full list of relevant financial disclosures.