To investigate sleep quality in juvenile fibromyalgia syndrome (JFS) and its impact on the global burden of the disease.
Consecutive JFS patients who performed full-night polysomnography (PSG) were included in this cross-sectional study. JFS related symptoms, neuropsychiatric features, and sleep quality were assessed using self-report measures. PSG sleep parameters, including N3 distribution index, were obtained from patients and age-matched healthy controls.
We included 25 patients (F 20, median age 15.7 years). Non restorative sleep was reported by 22/25 (88%) patients. JFS patients showed significantly longer Sleep Period Time (P=0.004) and increased wake time after sleep onset (P=0.03) compared to healthy peers. N3 sleep distribution index was significantly lower in patients than in control group (P=0.02). Subjective poor sleep quality was related to Widespread Pain Index (WPI) (r-0.65), symptom severity scale (r-0.64), depressive symptoms (r-0.58), fatigue (r-0.44), and symptoms severity upon awakening (r-0.65). N3 distribution index was correlated to depressive symptoms (r 0.41) and irritability (r 0.40). On multiple regression analysis, WPI was predicted by subjective sleep quality (β= -0.32, P=0.04), whereas depressive symptoms were predicted by subjective sleep measures (β= -0.32, P= 0.04) and PSG parameters (N3 min: β= -0.07, P=0.03).
Sleep complaints are a key hallmark of JFS and has significant impact on relevant clinical domains of the disease, such as pain and depression.