Sleep Quality, Lifestyle Factors and Endometriosis

Endometriosis has a negative impact on sleep quality but lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity may improve it.

Key Points

Highlights:

• Sleep quality is lower in individuals with endometriosis, and diet and exercise may have an effect on the sleep quality of endometriosis women. 

Importance:

• Counseling about diet and physical exercise may be helpful for improving the sleep quality of endometriosis patients.

What’s done here?

• This case-control study survey was conducted in the Infertility Clinic of Arash Hospital in Iran.
• The patients with laparoscopically-histopathologically confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis (n=78) were included and matched to patients with a normal pelvis, namely the control group (n=77).
• The clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients (age, education, occupational status, income, smoking, menstrual details, premenstrual spotting, menarche age, dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, gravidity, parity, history of using contraception were recorded.
• Physical activity, dietary habits, and sleep quality were evaluated.

Key results:

• Sleep quality was significantly decreased in patients with endometriosis when compared to the control group.
• Dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, dyspareunia, physical activity, low intake of dairy products - nuts and fruits were associated with poor sleep quality.

Strengths and Limitations 

• The selection and recall bias due to the design of the study; not to use a validated questionnaire for measuring physical activity are the limitations of the study.
• Evaluation of lifestyle factors on endometriosis risk & sleep quality using the validated questionnaires; and histopathologically confirmed endometriosis diagnosis are the strengths of this study.

Lay Summary

Endometriosis does not only affect the patients by dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, and infertility. An important issue in these patients, like other chronic diseases, is sleep quality.

Youseflu et al., from Iran, published a study entitled “Effects of endometriosis on sleep quality of women: does lifestyle factor make a difference?” in the journal "BMC Women’s Health".

The authors aimed to assess the impact of lifestyle factors such as physical activity levels, diet, body mass index, cigarette smoking on the sleep quality of the patients with endometriosis. They also sought to evaluate sleep quality in patients with endometriosis comparing with the control group.

For these purposes, the authors used the validated questionnaires for the dietary habits and sleep quality. The clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients such as age, education, occupational status, income, smoking, menstrual details, premenstrual spotting, menarche age, dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain, gravidity, parity, history of using contraception were also recorded.

Irregular menstrual status, menorrhagia, dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, history of abortion, family history of endometriosis, and low level of physical activity were found to be associated with endometriosis risk. Dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, dyspareunia, physical activity, low intake of dairy products - nuts and fruits were associated with poor sleep quality.

“Counseling about diet and physical exercise in these women is recommended.” the authors added.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32778090/