Assessing sleep disturbance and daytime sleepiness in people with epilepsy: A United Kingdom survey of four categories of healthcare professional

Abstract

Sleep disorders are more common in People With Epilepsy (PWE) than in healthy populations and affect one-third of PWE. Identifying and treating sleep disorders in PWE significantly improves health outcomes, leading to better quality of life and seizure control. Systematic sleep screenings of PWE and their bed partners are therefore highly recommended as addressing sleep disorders offers a potential disease-modifying strategy. However, evidence shows that sleep disorders in epilepsy are largely under-recognised, under-diagnosed and untreated in clinical practice. There is a lack of understanding of how healthcare practitioners (HCPs) perceive the burden of sleep disturbance and how they screen for sleep disturbances in PWE. This study aimed to assess how different categories of HCPs perceive the burden of sleep disturbance in PWE in the UK, and to determine which tools they use to measure sleep disturbance and sleep quality in clinical practice. A total of 100 HCPs (general practitioners, general neurologists, epileptologists, epilepsy specialist nurses) completed a 30-minute online questionnaire about their clinical practice and how they screen and manage sleep disorders in PWE. Our findings confirmed that sleep disturbance is common in PWE. HCPs considered sleep disturbance a burden in PWE with the majority taking it into consideration when prescribing antiseizure medications. However, there was variable awareness and/or utilisation of the different sleep questionnaires, suggesting the need for education on these tools and on the management and recognition of sleep disturbance in PWE and innovative ways to administer sleep questionnaires to minimise the time/administrative burden on HCPs.