ePrints

Two year follow-up of sleep diaries and polysomnography in chronic fatigue syndrome: a cohort study

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Zoe Gotts, Professor Jason Ellis, Emerita Professor Julia Newton

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

© 2017 IACFS/ME.Background: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a prevalent and debilitating symptom complex of unknown aetiology. Up to 96.8% of people with CFS report unrefreshing sleep and many describe, in qualitative interviews, changes in sleep over the course of their illness. Purpose: To establish whether subjective and objective sleep parameters change over a two-year follow-up period in patients with CFS. Methods: Twenty-two participants with CFS were recruited during routine consultations at a clinic in the North-East of England. All had their sleep characterised in a previously published cross-sectional study. Two were excluded from this analysis because they fulfilled criteria for a primary sleep disorder. The remaining 20 were contacted and 15 repeated fatigue- and sleep-quality questionnaires and sleep diaries, two years after their sleep was first characterised. Seven participants also repeated two consecutive nights of polysomnography. Paired statistical tests were used to compare follow-up with baseline measures. Results: Subjective questionnaires and sleep dairies did not show differences over two years follow-up. However, polysomnography demonstrated a higher proportion of stage one sleep (P <.01) and more awakenings per hour (P =.04) at follow-up. Conclusions: This study is the first to longitudinally assess sleep parameters in people with CFS. The results suggest that subjective perceptions of sleep remain stable, although objective measures indicated a tendency towards increased periods of lighter sleep. However, the small number of participants increases the likelihood that observed differences are Type I errors.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Davidson SL, Gotts ZM, Ellis JG, Newton JL

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health and Behavior

Year: 2017

Volume: 5

Issue: 2

Pages: 103-113

Online publication date: 02/03/2017

Acceptance date: 16/02/2017

ISSN (print): 2164-1846

ISSN (electronic): 2164-1862

Publisher: Routledge

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/21641846.2017.1297280

DOI: 10.1080/21641846.2017.1297280

Altmetrics

Share