Sleep disturbance and fatigue in mild relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis patients on chronic immunomodulant...

Poor sleep is common in MS and it contributes to fatigue. The beta interferons produce systemic effects which may not adapt and may induce fatigue.

To verify whether subjective poor sleep and fatigue during chronic therapy correspond to reduced sleep efficiency obtained by actigraphy at home.

42 ambulatory relapsing remitting MS patients with mild disability were monitored for at least 7 nights. Habitual sleep quality and fatigue were assessed with the MOS sleep measure and the Fatigue Severity Scale. Sleep logs provided daily sleep quality assessments during actigraphy at home. Patients were grouped according to their current treatment: no therapy, glatiramer acetate, IFNbeta 3 times a week, and IFNbeta once a week.

Sleep efficiency was reduced by an average of 5% in 2/3 of the nights following IFNbeta injections compared to the other nights, and daily sleep ratings correlated with actigraphy. Patients on glatiramer acetate also showed a lower sleep efficiency than patients without therapy. Actigraphy data were only modestly correlated with MOSsm scores, not with fatigue. Long term adaptation of sleep effects of immunomodulant agents is incomplete and needs to be considered in treatment planning and assessment of sleep in MS.