Abstract
Although sleep is vital to all human functioning and poor sleep is a known problem in cancer, it is unclear whether the overall prevalence of the various types of sleep disorders in cancer is known. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to evaluate if the prevalence of sleep disorders could be ascertained from the current body of literature regarding sleep in cancer. This was a critical and systematic review of peer-reviewed, English-language, original articles published from 1980 through 15 October 2013, identified using electronic search engines, a set of key words, and prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria. Information from 254 full-text, English-language articles was abstracted onto a paper checklist by one reviewer, with a second reviewer randomly verifying 50% (k = 99%). All abstracted data were entered into an electronic database, verified for accuracy, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and frequencies in SPSS (v.20) (North Castle, NY). Studies of sleep and cancer focus on specific types of symptoms of poor sleep, and there are no published prevalence studies that focus on underlying sleep disorders. Challenging the current paradigm of the way sleep is studied in cancer could produce better clinical screening tools for use in oncology clinics leading to better triaging of patients with sleep complaints to sleep specialists, and overall improvement in sleep quality.
Highlights
Sleep is vital to all human functioning and encompasses a complex set of physiological and behavioral processes; disruption in one or more of these processes can lead to many different types of symptoms of poor sleep that can occur singly or in combination
Cancer Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
We found that the terminology for symptoms of poor sleep is often used interchangeably with that for specific sleep disorders which are not fully assessed
Summary
Sleep is vital to all human functioning and encompasses a complex set of physiological and behavioral processes; disruption in one or more of these processes can lead to many different types of symptoms of poor sleep that can occur singly or in combination. In cancer patients, disturbed sleep is rated the second most bothersome symptom based on cancer and treatment status [1]. Sleep problems are known to cause poor healing, increase chances of cancer recurrence, decreased cognitive functioning, decreased work productivity, increased safety issues, medication misuse and abuse, poor relationships, and increased health care costs [2–20]. Poor sleep is a known problem in cancer patients along the treatment trajectory from the point of diagnosis to end of life [21, 22].
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