Patients with anorexia nervosa often experience sleep disturbances along with other challenges. Understanding the sleep patterns in individuals with anorexia is crucial because these disruptions have been linked to poorer treatment outcomes and more severe eating disorder symptoms.
Typically, sleep disturbances are studied in hospital settings, which may not accurately reflect the actual sleep experiences of patients. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Eating Disorders took a different approach by monitoring the sleep patterns of anorexia patients in their own homes.
Sleep problems in anorexia patients can be attributed to factors such as malnutrition and depression. To explore this further, the study enrolled twenty female patients aged 16 years and above, who agreed to receive cognitive-behavioral therapy.
The participants’ sleep was measured using a device called an accelerometer, which was placed on their non-dominant wrist. The researchers then compared the sleep patterns of the anorexia patients with those of healthy individuals.
The results obtained from the accelerometers revealed significant differences between the anorexia patients and the healthy controls. The anorexia patients exhibited greater variability in their sleep patterns, including more nights spent awake, shorter periods of uninterrupted sleep (wake after sleep onset or WASO), and longer durations of awakenings during the night lasting over 5 minutes.
Additionally, when the sleep results were correlated with questionnaires assessing clinical symptoms, positive associations were found, although these associations did not withstand rigorous statistical correction.
It is important to acknowledge some limitations of this study, such as the relatively small sample size and the potential for the accelerometer to mistakenly interpret normal movements during sleep as WASO.
Despite these limitations, the study highlights the significance of evaluating sleep in patients with anorexia nervosa. By gaining a better understanding of their sleep patterns and addressing any sleep disturbances, healthcare providers can potentially improve treatment outcomes and reduce the severity of eating disorder symptoms in these patients.
The study, “Differences in sleep patterns between patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls: a cross‑sectional study“, was authored by Malin Mandelid Kleppe, Ute Kessler, Guro Årdal Rekkedal, Hanna Flækøy Skjåkødegård, and Yngvild Sørebø Danielsen.