The Cross-Sectional Association Between Tinnitus and Actigraphy-Estimated Sleep in a Population-Based Cohort of Middle-Aged and Elderly Persons.
Maud de Feijter, Berthe C Oosterloo, André Goedegebure and 1 others
PMID 36607740WHAT IT FOUND
People with tinnitus reported taking longer to fall asleep, but actigraphy showed no objective difference in sleep duration or quality compared to those without tinnitus.
This suggests the distress is in the experience of sleep, not the physiological sleep itself.
Key findings
01Tinnitus was not associated with any actigraphy-estimated sleep measures, including total sleep time, sleep efficiency, or sleep onset latency.
02Self-reported sleep onset latency was significantly longer in participants with tinnitus compared to those without, even after adjusting for confounders.
03When stratified by hearing loss, the association with longer self-reported sleep onset latency remained in those with hearing loss but disappeared in those without.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if tinnitus causes sleep complaints or if poor sleep perception exacerbates tinnitus distress. Tinnitus was identified by self-report and not clinically confirmed. The population had relatively low tinnitus burden, which may limit the ability to detect associations in more severe cases. Actigraphy data was collected in a subsample, potentially introducing selection bias towards healthier and more educated participants.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that tinnitus does not affect sleep. The lack of objective findings on actigraphy does not invalidate the patient's report of difficulty falling asleep. The discrepancy suggests the problem lies in the subjective experience or hyperarousal, which requires a different clinical approach than treating physiological insomnia.