Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2019 Oct 9;42(10):zsz154.
doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsz154.

Sleep in Huntington's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of polysomongraphic findings

Ye Zhang  1 , Rong Ren  1 , Linghui Yang  1 , Junying Zhou  1 , Yun Li  2 , Jie Shi  3 , Lin Lu  3 , Larry D Sanford  4 , Xiangdong Tang  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Sleep in Huntington's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of polysomongraphic findings

Ye Zhang et al. Sleep. .

Abstract

Study objectives: Disturbed overnight sleep is a prominent feature of advanced stage Huntington's disease (HD). Several polysomnography (PSG) studies have reported significant changes of sleep in HD patients, but the findings are not unequivocal. To date, no meta-analysis has investigated the PSG changes in HD patients. The present study meta-analyzed results from studies examining the PSG changes in HD patients compared with controls.

Methods: A literature search performed in MEDLINE, EMBASE, All EBM databases, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases identified seven studies involving 152 HD patients and 144 controls which were included in our meta-analysis.

Results: Pooled results indicated decreased sleep efficiency, percentage of slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep, and increased percentage of N1 sleep, wake time after sleep onset, and rapid eye movement sleep latency in HD patients compared with controls. We found high heterogeneity in the effect sizes and no indication of systematic publication biases across studies. Meta-regression analyses showed that some of the heterogeneity was explained by age, body mass index (BMI), CAG repeat length, and disease severity of HD patients.

Conclusions: Our study showed that polysomnographic abnormalities are present in HD. Our findings also underscore the need for a comprehensive PSG assessment of sleep changes in patients with HD. Furthermore, the effects of age, BMI and CAG repeat length on sleep changes should be carefully considered and closely monitored in the management of HD.

Keywords: Huntington’s disease; meta-analysis; polysomongraphy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow chart used for the identification of eligible studies.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Meta-analysis of polysomnographic variables in patients with Huntington’s disease compared with controls; REM, rapid eye movement sleep; SWS, slow wave sleep.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Meta-analysis of polysomnographic variables in patients with Huntington’s disease compared with controls; REM, rapid eye movement sleep; SWS, slow wave sleep.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Meta-analysis of polysomnographic variables in patients with Huntington’s disease compared with controls; REM, rapid eye movement sleep; SWS, slow wave sleep.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. A novel gene containing a trinucleotide repeat that is expanded and unstable on Huntington’s disease chromosomes. The Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Group. Cell. 1993;72(6):971–983. - PubMed
    1. Harper PS. The epidemiology of Huntington’s disease. Hum Genet. 1992;89(4):365–376. - PubMed
    1. Aziz NA, et al. Sleep and circadian rhythm alterations correlate with depression and cognitive impairment in Huntington’s disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2010;16(5):345–350. - PubMed
    1. Goodman AO, et al. How vital is sleep in Huntington’s disease? J Neurol. 2010;257(6):882–897. - PubMed
    1. Goodman AO, et al. Asymptomatic sleep abnormalities are a common early feature in patients with Huntington’s disease. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2011;11(2):211–217. - PubMed

Publication types