Introduction: Daytime sleepiness is an independent factor for increased health care utilization and all cause mortality. Diabetic patients are more likely to be sleepy during the daytime than non-diabetics.
Objectives:To examine factors influencing the evolution of daytime sleepiness in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in a two-year followup study.Methods: Patients (N=145) aged from 40 to 60 of both genders were consecutively recruited and evaluated for comorbidity severity (Charlson Comorbidity Index), depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI II), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) and physical activity levels (International Physical Activity Questionnaire, IPAQ). Daytime sleepiness was assessed by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS).Results: Excessive daytime sleepiness (ESS>10) was found in 51 (35.2%) patients. At baseline, men had more excessive daytime sleepiness; however, women evolved with more sleepiness after two years. Levels of physical activity were independently associated with excessive daytime sleepiness: patients with a sedentary lifestyle developed worse levels of daytime sleepiness after two years. Active lifestyle was more beneficial for reducing daytime sleepiness in women. In this study, among all patients, levels of physical activity (IPAQ) improved after two years.
Conclusion:Excessive daytime sleepiness affects approximately 1/3 of T2D patients and women evolve with more sleepiness. Better levels of physical activity are independently associated with less daytime sleepiness. Implementing physical exercise possibly break a chain involving sleep-wake alterations and comorbidites in T2D. Gender differences show that these effects are more important for women.
IntroductionDaytime sleepiness is a major public health issue and is an independent factor for increased health care utilization and all cause mortality [1][2][3] . Previous studies suggest that diabetic patients are more likely to be sleepy during the daytime than non-diabetics [4][5][6] Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) commonly present with sleep abnormalities e.g. restless legs syndrome [7], obstructive sleep apnea [8], circadian alterations [9] and nervous system abnormalities [10,11]. Given these evidences, daytime sleepiness in diabetic patients are probably of multifactorial origin.Obesity and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) cooccur frequently with T2D [12,13]. Furthermore, short sleep duration increases the risk for the development of obesity [14] and is associated with increased incidence of T2D [15]. Importantly, poor sleep quality affects more than half of patients with T2D and relates to depressive symptoms [16]. Arterial hypertension, cerebrovascular events, anxiety, depression, cognitive alterations and dementia are other comorbidities frequent in T2D that potentially influence daytime sleepiness [4,[17][18][19]. All this evidence demonstrate that these comorbid conditions are multilaterally related.In T2D, sedentary life contributes to worse anthropometric measures, worse quality of lif...