Abstract:
Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) often report disrupted and unrefreshing sleep in association with worsened fatigue symptoms. However, the nature and magnitude of sleep architecture alteration in ME/CFS is not known, with studies using objective sleep measures in ME/CFS generating contradictory results.
The current manuscript aimed to review and meta-analyse of case-control studies with objective sleep measures in ME/CSF. A search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Google Scholar, and Psychoinfo databases.
After review, 24 studies were included in the meta-analysis, including 20 studies with 801 adults (ME/CFS = 426; controls = 375), and 4 studies with 477 adolescents (ME/CFS = 242; controls = 235), who underwent objective measurement of sleep.
Adult ME/CFS patients spend longer time in bed, longer sleep onset latency, longer awake time after sleep onset, decreased sleep efficiency, decreased stage 2 sleep, increased Stage 3, and longer rapid eye movement sleep latency.
However, adolescent ME/CFS patients had longer time in bed, longer total sleep time, longer sleep onset latency, and reduced sleep efficiency.
The meta-analysis results demonstrate that sleep is altered in ME/CFS, with changes seeming to differ between adolescent and adults, and suggesting sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system alterations in ME/CFS.
Source: Abdalla Z. Mohamed, Thu Andersen, Sanja Radovic, Peter Del Fante, Richard Kwiatek, Vince Calhoun, Sandeep Bhuta, Daniel F. Hermens, Jim Lagopoulos, Zack Shan. Objective sleep measures in chronic fatigue syndrome patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2023, 101771. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1087079223000278