Abstract
Purpose :
To assess sleep disturbance in low vision patients with better than NLP vision.
Methods :
124 patients at the time of initial low vision evaluation were asked if they experienced any sleep difficulty and specifically if it was cyclical in nature with periods of daytime fatigue and night wakefulness. Visual acuity and visual field evaluations were completed with central and peripheral defects noted.
Results :
Patient age median (range) was 77 (11 – 100) years with 56% female. Best corrected visual acuity median (range) was 20/160 (20/20 to LP). 74% had retinopathy, 13% CNS visual disorder, 12% optic neuropathy, and 1% corneal opacity. Sleep problems were classified as 10% cyclical difficulty (C), 44% non-cyclical difficulty (NC) and 46% no sleep difficulty (ND). Diagnosis and visual acuity loss were not related to sleep difficulty but patients with <100 diameter field were C 82%, NC 18%, 0% ND; field diameter >100 but <200 were C 14%, NC 86%, 0% ND; field diameter >200 but <900 were C 6%, NC 28% and ND 67%; and field diameter >900 were C 1%, NC 48%, and ND 51%. Normal peripheral field but >100 central scotoma were 1% C, 32% NC and 64% ND. Low Vision patients with normal peripheral and central fields were 0% C, 39% NC and 61% ND.
Conclusions :
Sleep disruption is common in low vision patients. The non 24 circadian rhythm disorder appears to be most common in those with less than a 10 degree field diameter. With pharmacological interventions available for these disorders, it may be prudent to assess sleep difficulty in low vision rehabilitation clinics.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.