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

Davidson, Sean, Gotts, Zoe, Ellis, Jason and Newton, Julia (2017) Two year follow-up of sleep diaries and polysomnography in chronic fatigue syndrome: a cohort study. Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior, 5 (2). pp. 103-113. ISSN 2164-1846

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis, unrefreshing sleep, nonrestorative sleep, polysomnography, sleep diaries
Subjects:	C800 Psychology
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	28 Jun 2017 07:38
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 17:45
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/31220

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