Sleep deficiency and symptoms of pain, fatigue, and depressed mood in youth with and without childhood systemic lupus erythematosus.

Abstract

To describe and compare sleep deficiency and symptoms of pain, fatigue, and depressed mood in youth with childhood Systemic lupus erythematosus (cSLE) to a healthy comparison group of youth; and to test the associations between sleep and symptoms of pain, fatigue, and depressed mood in youth with cSLE. Forty-three youth (23 youth with cSLE; 20 age, sex-matched healthy youth) wore actigraphs and completed sleep diaries for 10 days, and completed self-report questionnaires on sleep quality, pain, fatigue, and depressed mood. On average, both groups had a total sleep time of less than 7 hours. Youth with cSLE had worse sleep efficiency (73.3%) and sleep regularity index scores (55.4) compared to the healthy comparison group of youth (79.2%, 60.1, respectively). Youth with cSLE had worse pain (p = .03) and fatigue (p = .004) compared to the healthy comparison group. Negative associations were found among self-reported sleep quality, sleep satisfaction, and symptoms of pain, fatigue, and depressed mood in youth with cSLE and wake after sleep onset was positively associated with fatigue. Poor sleep efficiency and sleep irregularity accompanied by symptoms of pain, fatigue, and depressed mood was prevalent in youth with cSLE. Youth with lupus should be encouraged to maintain a regular sleep schedule. Since, this is the first study to incorporate objective sleep and sleep regularity measures in youth with cSLE, additional studies with objective and self-report sleep measures are needed to replicate our findings.