The Impact of Poor Sleep Parameters on Glaucoma

It appears that certain poor sleep parameters may be risk factors for or effects of glaucoma, according to a cross-sectional study involving nearly 6,800 individuals.

Participants were from the 2005 to 2008 NHANES Survey, were ≥40 years of age, and completed a sleep survey. Investigators looked at the impact of sleep duration, sleep latency, sleep disorders, sleep disturbances, sleep medication use, and daytime dysfunction due to sleepiness on glaucoma and visual field defects (VFDs). Among the results:

• Patients who slept ≥10 hours per night were more than 3 times as likely to have glaucoma compared with those who sleep 7 hours each evening.
• Those who took shorter (≤9 minutes) or longer (≥30 minutes) to fall asleep were twice as likely to have glaucoma as those who fell asleep between those ranges.
• Patients who slept shorter (≤3 hours per night) or longer (≥10 hours per night) durations were more than 3 times as likely to have VFDs than those who slept 7 hours each evening.
• Those who reported difficulty with recall were twice as likely to have VFDs versus those without such difficulty.
• Those who said they found it challenging to work on a hobby due to sleepiness were 3 times more likely to have VFDs than those who did not report such.

Reference 

Qiu M, MD*, Ramulu P, Boland M. Association between sleep parameters and glaucoma in the United States population J Glaucoma. 2019 Feb;28(2):97-104 doi: 10.1097/IJG.0000000000001169.