Nasal allergies impact on sleep quality
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-09-28 10:46
NEW YORK - Allergic rhinitis affects all aspects of sleep, according to
a new study.
"Allergic rhinitis is common and has been shown to impair social life and
sleep," Dr. Damien Leger, of Center du Sommeil et de la Vigilance, Paris,
France, and colleagues write in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Patients
with severe symptoms may have more sleep disturbances than those with a mild
form of the disease, but this has never been assessed using a validated tool."
In a nationwide study, the researchers studied 591 patients who had allergic
rhinitis for at least a year and a comparison group of 502 unaffected "control"
subjects.
Overall, 85 percent of allergic rhinitis patients were being treated for
their disease. Also, the team notes, 24 percent of allergic rhinitis patients
had asthma, compared to less than 2 percent of controls.
Compared to people with mild allergic rhinitis, those with severe allergic
rhinitis had significantly impaired sleep. The subjects with allergic rhinitis
used significantly more sleeping pills and alcohol than controls.
"A total of 43.7 percent of patients with allergic rhinitis reported a
feeling of fatigue on awakening despite a normal night's sleep," Leger's team
writes.
"Headache at awakening, anxiety, and depression as contributing factors of
sleep problems and daytime somnolence were significantly more frequently
reported by patients with allergic rhinitis than by the controls," the
investigators add.
"The onus is on health care professionals to make the link between allergic
rhinitis and sleep problems in their patients," they conclude. "Treating
allergic rhinitis or other nasal symptoms may improve dramatically the quality
of sleep."
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