How Does Sleep Impact Cancer Survival?

Duration of sleep and snoring may play a role in survival outcomes.

Specialty pharmacists counseling cancer patients need to make sure these individuals are getting some quality rest, a recent study suggests.

The study, conducted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, indicated that short pre-diagnostic sleep duration and frequent snoring were associated with significantly worse cancer survival. In narrowing down by cancer type, limited sleep duration and snoring were linked with significantly worse breast cancer survival outcomes.

The study included 21,230 women diagnosed with a primary invasive cancer.

The patients submitted data on several sleep attributes at study baseline, including sleep duration, snoring, and insomnia ratings. The data was adjusted for age, study arm, cancer site, marital status, income, smoking, physical activity, and duration between baseline data collection and cancer diagnosis.

"Our results suggest that sleep duration is important for breast cancer survival, particularly in women who snore," lead author Amanda Phipps said in a press release.