Insomnia among Patients with Schizophrenia: The Effect of Sleep Hygiene Guidelines

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a major psychiatric disorder that has a massive, long-lasting negative impact on the patients as well as society, the vast majority of patients with schizophrenia report insomnia, which tend to precede illness onset and can predict an acute exacerbation of psychotic symptoms. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of sleep hygiene guidelines on insomnia among patients with schizophrenia. A quasi-experimental design (pretest - posttest) was used to achieve this aim. The study was conducted at The Psychiatric and Addiction Treatment Hospital in Meet-Khalaf at Menoufia Governorate, Egypt. A Purposive sample of 65 patients with schizophrenia from inpatient unit of the above mentioned setting was recruited for this study and randomly divided into two equal groups study and control group. Three tools for data collection were used: Tool (I): Structure interview schedule to assess socio demographic data, Tool (II): Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) to assess the subject's level of insomnia, Tool (III): Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality. The study illustrated that there was a statistically significant improvement in quality of sleep among patients with schizophrenia in study group compared to control group. Conclusions: the sleep hygiene guidelines were effective in improvement of sleep quality among patients with schizophrenia in study group. Recommendation: Sleep hygiene guidelines should be routinely applied to all patients with psychiatric illness to improve their quality of sleep and relive insomnia.