People with indolent systemic mastocytosis (SM) often sleep badly, and this poor sleep is linked to a worse quality of life, according to a recent study published in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
This was true even after the researchers took into account other things that can negatively influence quality of life, like depression, skin problems or certain medicines.
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The study included 61 adults from the MastocytosisMastocytosis Rare disease caused by the buildup of mast cells. Cutaneous mastocytosis primarily affects the skin and is more common in children, while systemic mastocytosis affects internal organs and is more common in adults. Center in Boston. Their average age was 55, and most of them were women. Each person filled out surveys about their sleep, trouble falling or staying asleep (insomnia), their emotional state and how indolent SMIndolent SM A subtype of nonadvanced SM caused by the abnormal accumulation of mast cells in the bone marrow and other organs. Indolent SM accounts for around 90% of SM cases. affects their daily life.
About 56% of the patients slept poorly. In people without SM, only about 36% do.
The most common problem was waking up during the night, which happened to 88% of patients. Many also got up to use the bathroom, felt too hot or had pain that disturbed their sleep.
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Surprisingly, 60% of those surveyed still slept about seven hours a night. So the largest problem was not how long they slept, but that their sleep kept getting interrupted. “These findings suggest that measuring sleep duration alone may underestimate the burden of sleep disturbance in ISM,” the researchers said.
More than half of the patients (55%) had insomnia symptoms, and 70% were unhappy with their sleep. People taking a type of medicine called tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) had more insomnia. Poor sleep quality and insomnia were also linked to feeling more depressed.
The study has some limits. It can’t prove that bad sleep causes a worse quality of life in ISM, only that the two happen together. All the patients came from one mastocytosis clinic, and the researchers did not check for other sleep problems like sleep apnea.
The study’s authors conclude that doctors should ask indolent SM patients about their sleep and suggest proven sleep treatments to improve their quality of life.
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