Is Stroke Linked to Sleep Disturbances?

A new study assesses the link between sleep disturbances and stroke among Canadian adults. Individuals with stroke effects were 7 times more likely to show up sleep problems. The findings of the study are published in the Canadian Medical //Association Journal (CMAJ). That’s significant because the current guidelines for stroke care by the Canadian Stroke Best Practices only briefly mention sleep problems in the context of post-stroke fatigue.

Matthew Jeffers, a PhD student in the Faculty’s School of Epidemiology and Public Health who is the study’s first author, says greater awareness, guidance for treatment, and research on how to manage sleep problems in the context of stroke is needed considering that these disturbances affect the majority of those with stroke across Canada.

Stroke-Induced Sleep Disorders

“Our overall goal for practitioners in the primary care setting is to increase their awareness of the high number of stroke patients with sleep disturbance symptoms. Given how common this is, it may be worthwhile for physicians to consider screening for underlying sleep disorders in patients with stroke,” says Jeffers.

One of the paper’s reviewers described it as a “well written and designed study” that “provides data on an important topic that, as the authors correctly point out, is lacking in the literature.”

To complete this study, the research team employed various statistical techniques for a cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), a large and comprehensive national survey on people’s health status and the determinants of health.

This gave them a far better picture of how common sleep problems are in stroke across the Canadian population than previous studies, which typically have small sample sizes.

Jeffers suggests that further research will be necessary to “study groups of patients in sleep labs to get a more thorough and objective understanding of the relationship between stroke and specific types of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea and insomnia.”

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Source-Eurekalert