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. 2015 Mar 30;4(2):1000193.
doi: 10.4172/2167-0277.1000193.

A Retrospective Examination of Sleep Disturbance across the Course of Bipolar Disorder

Jennifer C Kanady  1 , Adriane M Soehnera  2 , Allison G Harvey  1
Affiliations

A Retrospective Examination of Sleep Disturbance across the Course of Bipolar Disorder

Jennifer C Kanady et al. J Sleep Disord Ther. .

Abstract

Background: Sleep disturbance is a prevalent and clinically significant feature of bipolar disorder. However, there are aspects of sleep and bipolar disorder that have been minimally characterized. This study aims to fill several gaps in the literature by examining the prevalence, coexistence, and persistence of sleep disturbance retrospectively across a five-year period in bipolar disorder.

Methods: Fifty-one people with bipolar disorder I and comorbid insomnia who were currently inter-episode completed the NIMH Retrospective Life-Charting Methodology (the life chart). The life chart was used to document the prevalence, coexistence, and persistence of insomnia, hypersomnia, delayed sleep phase, reduced sleep need, and irregular sleep patterns across the course of five years.

Results: Across the five year period, manic months were primarily characterized by reduced sleep need (62.8%) and insomnia (38.1%), depressive months by hypersomnia (56.0%) and insomnia (51.9%), mixed months by all five types of sleep disturbance, and inter-episode months by insomnia (67.4%). There was coexistence in the types of sleep disturbance experienced. Further, each type of sleep disturbance demonstrated persistence across the five years, with persistence rates being the highest for insomnia (49.0-58.8%).

Conclusions: Sleep disturbance is a prevalent and complex feature across mood episodes and inter-episode periods of bipolar disorder. Further, there is variation in the types of sleep disturbance experienced.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Coexistence; Persistence; Prevalence; Sleep disturbance.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The Prevalence of Sleep Disturbance in Mood Episodes and the Inter-episode Period of Bipolar Disorder. (The percentages represent the percentage of months within each mood or inter-episode state characterized by each type of sleep disturbance).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The Persistence of Sleep Disturbance: Mood Episodes vs. Inter-episode Periods. (The percentage of months within mood episodes and inter-episode periods characterized by each type of sleep disturbance are depicted in this bar graph. t-values represent the difference between mood episode and inter-episode percentage means. *p<0.01).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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