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. 2019 Oct 15:11:219-229.
doi: 10.2147/NSS.S197375. eCollection 2019.

Impact Of Spinal Cord Injury On Sleep: Current Perspectives

Abdulghani Sankari  1   2 , M Safwan Badr  1   2 , Jennifer L Martin  3   4 , Najib T Ayas  5 , David J Berlowitz  6   7   8
Affiliations

Impact Of Spinal Cord Injury On Sleep: Current Perspectives

Abdulghani Sankari et al. Nat Sci Sleep. .

Abstract

Sleep disorders are commonly encountered in people living with spinal cord injury (SCI). Primary sleep disorders such as sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), sleep-related movement disorders, circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, and insomnia disorder are common conditions after SCI but remain under-recognized, underdiagnosed and therefore remain untreated for a majority of patients. Sleep disturbances in people living with SCI are associated with significant impairments of daytime function and quality of life. Previous reviews have described findings related mainly to SDB but have not examined the relationship between other sleep disorders and SCI. This narrative review examines various sleep abnormalities and related functional and physical impairments in people living with SCI. It discusses new evidence pertaining to management, highlights existing limitations in the literature and recommends future directions for research.

Keywords: SCI; circadian rhythm sleep disorders; insomnia; leg movements; sleep-disordered breathing.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr Abdulghani Sankari reports grants from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, grants from US Department of Defense, grants from National Institute of Health, grants from American Thoracic Society Foundation, during the conduct of the study; in addition, Dr Sankari has a patent US15706097 pending. Dr M Safwan Badr reports grants from NIH, grants from DOD, grants from the VA, during the conduct of the study; grants from NIH, grants from DOD, grants from VA, outside the submitted work. Dr Jennifer Martin reports grants from UCLA, during the conduct of the study. Dr Najib Ayas reports personal fees from bresotec, outside the submitted work. Dr David J Berlowitz reports non-financial support from Phillips Respironics, non-financial support from ResMed, outside the submitted work. This was not an industry-supported study. The opinions expressed in this article reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official views of the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute of Health or Department of Defense. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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