COPD and sleep quality

Breathing difficulties can notably degrade one’s ability to enjoy a good night’s sleep and, according to a new study, poor sleep quality is a significant contributor to COPD patients’ reporting of low quality of life. [1]

As a case in point, the new study found that 74% of the 180 COPD patients enrolled in the research program reported incurring at least one sleep-disturbing respiratory symptom 3 times a week or more. The most common respiratory symptoms cited by study participants included:

• Coughing
• Wheezing
• Snoring
• Sleep apnea events
• Can’t breathe at night
• Chest pains

These symptoms affected the self-reported average amount of time it took study participants to fall asleep (30 minutes), the amount of time they slept each night (5 hours) and the percentage of patients that awoke during the night (78%) for one reason or another. If the study population is representative of the general COPD population (and there is no reason to think otherwise) then sleep quality is a huge problem for people with respiratory conditions.

To assess whether sleeping difficulties affect COPD patients overall self-reported quality of life, the researchers had the study participants complete three different quality of life surveys (a common respiratory health survey, a sleep specific health survey, and a general health survey) from which the study team conducted a statistical comparison of the correlations.

They discovered a particularly strong correlation between low reported quality of life on the respiratory health survey (St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire) and poor sleep quality as determined by the sleep specific survey (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index).

Ironically, the researchers reported that only about 7% of the enrolled COPD patients indicated they felt excessively sleepy during the day (i.e. difficulty in staying awake) despite the significant percentage of sleep disturbances and quality of life correlation. With that said the researchers concluded, “Patients with COPD have poor HrQOL (self-reported quality of life) and a high prevalence of disturbed sleep. This was correlated with indices of disturbed sleep. Few patients reported daytime sleepiness in spite of severe sleep disturbances. Studies in COPD incorporating HrQOL as an outcome should take sleep quality into account.”

We previously wrote an article for COPD patients and smokers detailing strategies for improving chances for a good night’s sleep. To read that article, click here.

[1] Scharf SM, et al. Sleep quality predicts quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. 2011:6 1–12