Sleep profile in anorexia and bulimia nervosa female patients.

OBJECTIVE: Sleep wake cycle and eating patterns undergo major changes throughout life and have been proved to be very correlated. Eating disorder prevalence is increasing and sleep problems are very common among them. The current study is concerned with investigating the sleep pattern in anorexia and bulimia female patients using both subjective and objective assessment tools.

METHODS: A cross sectional study of sleep patterns using structured sleep disorder questionnaire and full night polysomnography in 23 female patients with bulimia and anorexia, patients aged 18-45 years not on any treatment for a month at least, compared to a sex and age matched control group (20 participants), all cases were collected from the Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University over 18 months interval.

RESULTS: Significant affection of most domains of sleep measured by subjective and objective assessment tools in patients compared with the control group.

DISCUSSION: Sleep is equally affected in bulimia and anorexia patients, confirming that sleep and eating disorders are highly correlated. Sleep may be a clinical marker in eating disorders.