Subjective and objective features of sleep disorders in patients with acute ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke: It is not only sleep apnoea which is important

Background: More than half of stroke patients present with a sleep-related breathing disorder including both central and obstructive forms of sleep apnoea. A cerebral infarction in different brain areas can disrupt sleep regulating pathways and cause insomnia, hypersomnia, circadian rhythm disturbances and other sleep disorders. Therefore, there is a need of objective data about various sleep disorders arising after ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke in order to implement practical recommendations how to suspect, diagnose and treat these conditions. Our medical hypothesis is that non-breathing sleep disorders are common among patients with acute ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke.

Objective: To investigate the subjective and objective sleep parameters in the patients with an acute ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke.

Methods: In the acute period (from 3 to 10 days after the first symptoms) of stroke all the patients completed questionnaires about sleep complaints and symptoms experienced before and after stroke, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Modified Rankin Scale. Patients were included for further polysomnography (PSG) and sleep electroencephalography according to these criteria: (1) patients expressing severe sleep related complaints and/or symptoms that are new or have exacerbated after the stroke; and/or (2) patients having the ESS score equal or >10.

Results: 66 patients were examined in the acute period of stroke. 33 (50%) patients had at least one or more new or exacerbated sleep complaints and/or symptoms, mostly related to obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and insomnia. Finally, 13 (19.7% of the whole sample) patients were selected for performing PSG. 12 of 13 patients were diagnosed with sleep disorder: 1 patient got the diagnosis of mild OSA, 1 - central sleep apnoea (CSA), 2 - combination of OSA and CSA, 1 - combination of mild OSA, periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) and REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD), 1 - combination of mild OSA and PLMD, 3 - combination of PLMD and insomnia, 3 - insomnia. There were no significant relations between type, location or treatment of stroke and various PSG measures, as well as type of a diagnosed sleep disorder.

Conclusions: Half of our acute stroke patients had at least one or more new or exacerbated sleep complaints and/or symptoms, mainly related to OSA or insomnia. In the selected PSG group almost all patients were diagnosed with a sleep disorder, half of them having non-breathing sleep disorder, such as PLMD, RBD and insomnia.