How Does Dry Eye Affect Sleep Quality?

Dry eye is one of the most common eye diseases that directly affects the quality of life. There are many studies on the condition, which has an effect up to vision impairment in its later stages. One of these studies examines the link between dry eye and sleep quality. In fact, the published scientific paper evaluates 21 separate studies on this subject and reveals how annoying the consequences of dry eye disease can actually be.

Dry Eye and Sleep Quality

The research published by BMC Ophthalmology includes data from 21 different studies. Accordingly, a total of 419,218 participants were examined in all studies. According to the data obtained from the results of the experiments on all participants, dry eye patients have a longer time to fall asleep and are also considered to be of better quality because their sleep is constantly interrupted.

We attach the results of the quantitative evaluations on this issue below.

• Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) results: Dry eye patients had higher ESS scores compared to healthy subjects (WMD = 3.02, 95% CI: 2.43, 3.60, P < 0.01).
• Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) results: Dry eye patients had significantly higher PSQI scores than healthy subjects (WMD = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.06, 2.50, P < 0.001). In particular, dry eye patients scored higher than healthy subjects for sleep quality, time to fall asleep and sleep disturbance. However, there were no differences in sleep duration, sleep efficiency, daytime dysfunction and sleep medication use.
• Risk of sleep disturbance: Dry eye patients had a higher risk of sleep disturbance (RR = 2.20, 95% CI: 1.78, 2.72, P < 0.001) and poor sleep (RR = 3.76, 95% CI: 3.15, 4.48, P < 0.001). The rate of excessive sleepiness is also higher in dry eye patients (RR = 5.53, 95% CI: 3.83, 7.18, P < 0.001).

These 21 studies show that dry eye directly causes sleep disturbances and negatively affects sleep quality. It is also noted that insomnia problems occur especially in individuals with high severity of the disease. In this respect, we can say that dry eye is a disease that should definitely be treated and directly affects the comfort of life.

Source

1. https://bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-024-03416-7