Study objectives: Sleep issues are common for people with neurodegenerative conditions, yet research has focused on specific aspects of sleep. Whilst important, a more holistic approach to investigating sleep, termed sleep health, considers sleep's positive and negative aspects. Current studies exploring sleep health have lacked a control group for reference. For the first time, this study investigated the sleep health of people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) and Huntington's disease (HD) and compared it with a community sample (CS).
Methods: 111 people, including 43 MS, 19 HD and 49 CS, participated in this study. The data, including actigraphy, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale, were collected as part of ongoing research studies. Seven sleep health domains were determined from the collected data, and a composite sleep health score was developed. Analysis of Variance and Independent T-tests were performed to identify population and sex differences.
Results: The HD group had higher sleep regularity and lower sleep rhythmicity than the MS and CS groups. The HD group had significantly less sleep duration than the MS group. No significant differences between the groups were observed in the sleep health composite score. Males had significantly higher sleep regularity within the HD group but significantly lower sleepiness scores in the CS group.
Conclusions: These findings indicate that people living with HD may experience greater variance in their wake times, therefore decreasing the consistency of being awake or asleep 24 hours apart. Understanding the mechanisms for this should be explored in people with HD.
Keywords: neurological; sleep duration; sleep health; wake times.
© 2024 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.