Differences and associations between nocturnal voiding/nocturia and sleep disorders

Abstract

To determine the differences and associations between nocturnal voiding (NV)/nocturia and sleep disorders. Using an epidemiological survey, we compared residents with non-bothersome NV (NNV) and bothersome NV (BNV) to those with sleep disorders, including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS), restless leg syndrome (RLS), and periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), for patient background, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), sleep status, and general health-related quality of life (HRQL). Furthermore, we investigated associations between BNV and sleep disorders using multivariate analyses. In all 2271 (38%) answers were available, of which 729 (32%), 966 (43%) and 546 (24%) subjects had no NV, NNV and BNV, respectively, and 348 (15%), 52 (2%), 172 (8%) and 62 (3%) were determined as having insomnia, OSAS, RLS and PLMD, respectively. For LUTS, subjects with BNV were significantly worse than those with OSAS, but better than those with RLS and PLMD. Total sleep status in the BNV group was better than that in the insomnia group, but worse than that in the OSAS and RLS groups. General HRQL in the BNV group was worse than that in the OSAS group, and better than that in the RLS and PLMD groups for physical aspects. In mental aspects, subjects with BNV were better than those with insomnia. Insomnia and OSAS had a close correlation with NNV/BNV (P < 0.001-0.022), and PLMD had a significant correlation with BNV (P = 0.031). However, RLS was not associated with NV (P = 0.42) nor with BNV (P = 0.09). NV/nocturia is closely related to sleep disorders, but obviously different from them in several aspects.