Prevalence of sleep disturbances: Sleep disordered breathing, short sleep duration, and non-restorative sleep

Recently, interest in sleep disturbances, such as sleep disordered breathing (SDB), short sleep duration, and non-restorative sleep (NRS), has been increasing. The potentially large public health implications of sleep disturbances indicate a need to determine their prevalence in a general population. This review describes the characteristics of population-based sleep cohorts from past to present. Unavoidable methodological and baseline characteristic heterogeneity was found between studies. The prevalence of SDB (apnea hypopnea index (AHI), respiratory disturbance index (RDI), or oxygen desaturation index (ODI) ≥5/h) was 24.0-83.8% in men and 9.0-76.6% in women, and that of moderate-to-severe SDB (AHI, RDI, or ODI ≥15/h) was 7.2-67.2% in men and 4.0-50.9% in women. Additionally, the prevalence of SDB in post-menopausal women was 3-6 times higher than in pre-menopausal women. The prevalence of subjective short sleep duration (<6 h) was 7.5-9.6%, while that of objective short sleep duration (<6 h) was 22.1-53.3%. The prevalence of NRS was 19.2-31.0% in men and 26.3-42.1% in women, as determined from studies using a yes-no questionnaire, while a multi-national survey using a telephone-based expert system showed a wide range of prevalence between countries, from 2.4% to 16.1%. An association between SDB, short sleep duration, and NRS has recently been suggested. To gain a better understanding of the burden of sleep disturbances, a consensus on the definition of several sleep disturbances is needed, as methodological heterogeneity exists, including SDB scoring rules, subjective versus objective data collection for short sleep duration, and the definition of NRS itself.