Sleep quality in patients with subclinical thyroid dysfunction

Aim: Thyroid hormones are important regulators of body metabolism. Subclinical thyroid diseases are frequently encountered in adults and the diagnosis is easily made by laboratory tests. Sleep disturbances are also common in adults and occasionally have life-threatening consequences. However, studies investigating the relationship between subclinical thyroid diseases and sleep disorders are limited in the literatüre. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the sleep quality in patients with subclinical thyroid disease. Material and Method : Gender, age, weight, BMI, Anti-TPO levels, TSH levels and fT4 levels of 141 patients with euthyroidism and subclinical thyroid disease referred to the thyroid polyclinic were studied. The PSQI questionnaire was applied to 7 main topics including sleep quality, sleep delay, sleep duration, sleep activity, sleep disorders, sleep medication use and daily functions and score averages recorded. Windows SPSS for Windows Version 18.0 software was used for statistical evaluation of our research data. Result: The mean age of the patients was 42.8 + 14.5. In the subclinical hypothyroid patient group, there are 64 patients (46 females, 18 males) and the mean age was 42.3 + 14.2. In the subclinical hyperthyroid patient group, there were 42 patients (29 females, 13 males) and the mean age was 44.6 + 16.05. In the control group (euthyroid), 35 individuals, 26 female and 9 male, were taken and the mean age was 41.8 + 13.1. PSQI score averaged 4.5 + 1.8 for euthyroid group, PSQI score averaged for subclinical hypothyroid and subclinical hyperthyroid were 7.6+3.7 and 8.2+4.4 respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the PSQI score as regards to gender, age, BMI, Anti-TPO level. There was a statistically significant difference in mean PSQI score as regards to TSH and fT4 levels. There was a significant difference between the group with subclinical thyroid disease and the PSQI score of the euthyroid (control) group and group with subclinical thyroid disease PSQI score averaged higher than euthyroid group. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the subclinical hypothyroidism and the subclinical hyperthyroidism group in terms of PSQI score averages. Conclusion: The results of our study indicate that subclinical thyroid disease affects sleep quality negatively.