Abstract

Objectives: Our purpose in this study is to investigate sleep disorders and related factors in chronic stroke patients.

Material and Methods: 42 males and females over 45 years of age who were admitted to participate in the study who had the first stroke history, and 3 months after the illness were included. Full polysomnography (PSG) was applied to all cases in the sleep laboratory overnight to evaluate sleep as objective. Stroke patients were assessed by modified Ranking Scale (MRS), National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIH), Functional Independence Scale (FIM), Functional Ambulance Scale (FAS), Barthel Index and their relation with sleep was investigated.

Results: BDI, ESS (Epworth Sleepiness Scale), PSQI (Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index) score averages of the patient group were higher than the control group. ESS score mean was statistically significant (p <0.001). When polysomnography data are compared with clinical status of stroke patients, there was a positive correlation between the NIH score and the total REM(Rapid Eye Movements) duration. Also, there was a positive correlation between the patients' Functional Ambulation Scale scores and total REM duration.  In multivariate linear regression analysis, NIH total score was found to be effective for the AHI(Apnea Hypopnea Index) model.

Conclusions: In this study, an increase in sleep disorder was detected in stroke patients according to the control group.  We found that functional status, sleep quality and depression were related to each other and that sleep quality deteriorated and functional status deteriorated with increasing depressive mood, and sleep quality and depressive mood also affected each other negatively in stroke patients.