Sleep, Chronic Pain, and Fatigue in Rheumatic Disorders

Sleep disturbance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is related to fatigue, disease activity, and other patient-reported outcomes

“…However, pain is included in the RADAI score, which was significantly associated with all four sleep measures. These findings support previous studies that describe an association between pain and sleep disturbance (8,13,52). We did not further investigate whether some of the RADAI components contributed more than others, but a robustness analysis with and without VAS pain included in the multivariate model for RAID sleep indicated contributions of the pain domain within RADAI.…”

“…Sleep disturbance is a disruption or deviation from a normal sleep pattern that may include difficulty falling asleep, poor quality sleep, non-restorative sleep, numerous nightly awakenings, early morning awakening, excessive daytime sleepiness, and fatigue (12). Fatigue may be physical (physical exhaustion or reduced energy) or cognitive (problems with thinking, concentration, or memory) (13). Sleep disturbance has been reported in a number of rheumatic diseases including RA (12), and a bidirectional relationship between sleep disturbance and fatigue has been demonstrated (10).…”