Objective: To determine whether idiopathic RAS is associated with a patient's sleep pattern.
Methods: Data were collected through standardized oral exams and questionnaires at the University of Florida during a crossover study of RAS subjects aged 13+ while active or inactive. Participants who had taken medications affecting the immune system or sleep or had smoked in the 24 hours prior to the visit were excluded. Subjects reported how many days in the past 7 days they slept the amount needed and had more or less sleep compared to the previous 3 weeks. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests at two-sided alpha=0.05 in SAS v9.2
Results: After exclusions, data were available for 16 participants. The age range was 18-31 years, 56% Females, 13% Hispanic, 56% White, 25% Asian, and 6% other/mixed race. Subjects reported a similar number of days in which they got the amount of sleep needed (3.81 vs. 3.69; active vs. inactive, respectively, p=0.76), slept less (1.31 vs. 2.00; p=0.32), or slept more (0.81 vs. 1.06; p=0.45) than the previous 3 weeks. Overall, subjects when active tended to report fewer days with less or more sleep than usual compared to when inactive (2.13 vs. 3.06; p=0.15).
Conclusions: There was no significant association between RAS and the sleep variables examined. However, subjects tended to report less sleep irregularities in the 7 days immediately prior to RAS onset. A larger study is needed to further investigate the association between RAS and sleep.
NIH grants R21DE018714, 1UL1RR029890, T32DE007200