Sleep Duration, Disturbances, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Stroke Survivors

To determine the association of sleep duration and disturbances with physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in stroke survivors.

Cross-sectional analysis of the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke second in-home visit (May 2013-Dec 2016).

Population-based national study in US.

Individuals with adjudicated incident stroke (N=368).

Not applicable.

Physical and mental HRQoL based on the 12-item Short Form. Sleep measures included sleep duration, difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, nonrestorative sleep, and a combined measure based on the latent class model. Logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between sleep variables and HRQoL, adjusting for demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, behavioral factors, and comorbidities.

This study included 368 non-Hispanic Black and White stroke survivors. The mean age was 76.0 years (SD=7.9), and 52.7% were men. Stroke survivors with short sleep duration were more likely to have poor physical HRQoL (OR, 2.87; 95% CI, 1.46-5.62) compared with stroke survivors with adequate sleep duration after adjusting for confounding. Similarly, stroke survivors with nonrestorative sleep were 3 times more likely to have poor physical HRQoL (OR, 3.11; 95% CI, 1.28-7.55) compared with stroke survivors with restorative sleep.

Non-optimal sleep duration and nonrestorative sleep were associated with higher odds of poor physical HRQoL in stroke survivors. These findings highlight the importance of considering sleep health in post-stroke care.