1025 Sleep Patterns In Head Neck Cancer Patients During Radiotherapy

Introduction

Sleep disturbances are reported to be highly prevalent in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients, but no carefully assessed sleep data exists in patients with HNC undergoing concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT).

Methods

To objectively assess sleep patterns in this study population, we conducted a pilot study in 15 patients and 13 non-cancer healthy volunteers. Patients wore the wrist Actiwatch Spectrum (Philips Respironics) at week 1, 3, and 6/7 during the 7-week treatment period. Volunteers wore the Actiwatch for one week. We used the Actiware software to calculate sleep parameters. A sleep log was used as a complement to define participants’ bedtime and rise-up time. Any sleep episode scored by the software during daytime was considered as a nap.

Results

Compared to healthy volunteers, patients had lower overnight sleep efficiency, longer sleep onset latency and more waking time after sleep onset (WASO), indicating more difficulty falling asleep and maintaining sleep. During CRT, patients’ sleep efficiency decreased whereas latency and WASO increased, indicating possible the decrease of sleep quality. Sleep efficiency of <85% has been used previously as a cut-off for poor sleep; based on this criteria, 45% of HNC patients had poor sleep at treatment baseline, compared to 31% in non-cancer volunteers, and this proportion increased to 51% by the end of treatment. Patients had longer napping time: compared to healthy volunteers, the napping time was on average 2 hours longer at baseline, and 3 hours longer at the end of treatment, indicating unhealthy sleep habits of these patients.

Conclusion

Our data suggested HNC patients had severe sleep disturbances and unhealthy sleep habits, which were aggravated during CRT treatment.

Support

This study was supported by UL1TR001412-04, a Clinical and Translational Research Award under SUNY-Buffalo.