Highlights
- •Sleep dysfunction was common in both online and clinical FND samples.
- •In our online FND sample, sleep dysfunction comprised short and inefficient sleep.
- •Sleep quality was negatively associated with functional impairment.
Abstract
Purpose
Functional neurological disorders (FND) are disabling conditions for which there are
few empirically-supported treatments. Disturbed sleep appears to be part of the FND
context; however, the clinical importance of sleep disturbance (extent, characteristics
and impact) remains largely unknown. We described sleep quality in two samples, and
investigated the relationship between sleep and FND-related functional impairment.
Methods
We included a sample recruited online via patient charities (N = 205) and a consecutive clinical sample (N = 20). Participants completed validated measures of sleep quality and sleep characteristics
(e.g. total sleep time, sleep efficiency), mood, and FND-related functional impairment.
Results
Poor sleep was common in both samples (89% in the clinical range), which was characterised
by low sleep efficiency (M = 65.40%) and low total sleep time (M = 6.05 h). In regression analysis, sleep quality was negatively associated with FND-related
functional impairment, accounting for 16% of the variance and remaining significant
after the introduction of mood variables.
Conclusions
These preliminary analyses suggest that subjective sleep disturbance (low efficiency,
short sleep) is common in FND. Sleep quality was negatively associated with the functional
impairment attributed to FND, independent of depression. Therefore, sleep disturbance
may be a clinically important feature of FND.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 11, 2017
Accepted:
May 10,
2017
Received in revised form:
April 20,
2017
Received:
March 27,
2017
Footnotes
☆Data can be accessed via the University of Leeds data repository, or via contact with the first author.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
