A new study has shown that stroke survivors are more likely to experience abnormal sleep patterns – such as sleeping too much or not enough – compared to those who have not had a stroke.
For the study, participants were asked about their sleep patterns, such as how much sleep they usually get at night on weekdays or workdays.
Sleep duration was divided into three categories: short, less than six hours; normal, six to eight hours; and long, eight or more hours of sleep. Researchers looked at how often participants had normal sleep, defined as six to eight hours.
The results showed that normal sleep duration was less common for people who had a stroke than for those with no prior stroke for all age groups.
After adjusting for factors that could affect sleep such as age, weight and high blood pressure, researchers found people who had a stroke were 54 per cent more likely to report more than eight hours of sleep per night compared to those without stroke.
Those with stroke were 50 per cent more likely to get less than six hours of sleep per night when compared to those without stroke.
“In previous research, stroke has been linked to abnormal sleep, in particular sleep apnoea,” said Hassani.
“Conditions like insomnia and excessive sleepiness are common in stroke patients and may occur as a direct or indirect consequence of stroke itself. Future research should explore the links between stroke and duration of sleep and determine the effect of sleep duration on outcomes after stroke.”
A limitation of the study was that hours of sleep were self-reported, so participants may not have remembered accurately how much they slept.
The study was published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
