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Daytime napping linked to greater symptom severity in patients with FM
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Frequent daytime napping was associated with greater symptom severity and fatigue in patients with fibromyalgia, according to recently published research.
Researchers studied 1,044 patients with fibromyalgia (FM) who responded to a questionnaire advertised by the Fibromyalgia Action Network U.K. and Fibro U.K. Responses were collected between September 2010 and February 2011, and patients were asked to provide details about their FM diagnosis for verification. Demographic information was also collected, including age, sex, marital status, comorbidities, employment status and the number of children living in the home. Median disease duration was 7 years.
Once enrolled, patients were asked about napping habits and administered the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale, Fatigue Severity Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Everyday Memory Questionnaire-Revised.
A high rate of comorbidities, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, 15%) and asthma (13%), were present among patients. Additionally, 11.2% reported having depression and 5.1% reported a psychiatric condition. Two hundred and three patients were classified as having no comorbidity, 548 were classified as having one or two comorbidities and 293 were classified as having two or more comorbidities.
An analysis of only participants who reported daily napping showed that on a typical weekday, 18.9% napped in the morning, 58.8% napped in the afternoon and 25% napped in the evening. A high number of patients who napped reported taking a nap without intending to nap (86.5%), and 22.5% reported they sometimes or almost always planned the timing of the nap.
Common reasons for napping included tiredness or exhaustion (94.1%), feeling unwell (67.2%), to catch up on poor sleep in the previous night (59.6%), due to headache (42.6%) or pain (26.2%).
The researchers explored napping behavior between younger adult study participants and patients in the study older than 60 years of age and found no significant differences.
Bivariate analysis showed daytime napping was significantly associated with the number of comorbidities and the use of serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, pregabalin and gabapentin, but not other medications, according to the researchers.
Participants who regularly napped had increased levels of pain, fatigue, sleep problems, memory difficulties and mood disturbances compared with participants who napped less regularly or not at all. Participants who regularly napped for more than 30 minutes were more likely to be younger, have children living in the home and greater levels of depression and memory difficulties. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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