For the study, researchers used the The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index to assess sleep quality. The PSQI defines a good sleeper as having a score less than or equal to five, and poor sleepers exhibiting scores over five. Study participants self-reported the quality of their sleep and the occurrence of exacerbations. The reports of exacerbations were categorized according to severity. Researchers adjusted the data for body mass index, sex, smoker status and age.
Researchers found every two-point increase in the PSQI score was linked to a 10 percent increase in risk of COPD exacerbations. The researchers noted that further research is needed to better understand the pathophysiologic mechanisms involved in the relationship between COPD and sleep quality.
Researcher Matthew Shorofsky, MD, a pulmonary medicine fellow at McGill University in Montreal, told MedPage Today, “Our finding suggest that poor sleep and COPD are strongly related, but it is a chicken-egg issue…we can’t really say if exacerbations caused poor sleep or if poor sleep contributed to exacerbations. We need additional studies to figure this out.”
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