Comparative Analysis Of Different Dimensions Of Chronic Stress On Objective Sleep Structure Of Depression Patients

Objective: To study the effect of chronic stress on sleep of patients with depression.Methods: 101 patients with depression were enrolled in our hospital from December 2018 to August 2019 by convenient sampling method.Each subject completed the life events scale(LES)and polysomnography(PSG).According to LES score,the subjects were divided into study group(chronic stress group)and control group(non chronic stress group).Then the study group was further divided into five subgroups according to the intensity,nature and number of events of stress.The Mann Whitney U test was used to compare the PSG results among the groups.Results: 1.The number of microawakenings in the study group was higher than that in the control group(74.0 vs.58.0,P<0.05);2.Subgroup analysis showed that the proportion of NREM3 stage in high total stress group was lower than that in low total stress group(0.0 vs.13.5,P<0.01);3.The proportion of REM stage in high negative stress group was higher than that in low negative stress group(13.4 vs.8.2,P<0.05),and the proportion of NREM3 stage was lower than that in low negative stress group(0.0 vs.6.5,P<0.05);4.Both positive and negative stress showed that the apnea + hypoventilation and AHI of high stress were lower than that of low stress(P<0.05);5.At low stress levels,the proportion of REM stage in high stress was higher than that in low stress(13.9 vs.2.4,P<0.01).However,at high stress levels,the proportion of NREM3 stage in high stress was lower than that in low stress(0.0 vs.0.7,P<0.05).Conclusions:1.Chronic stress,especially high-intensity negative stress,is more likely to increase the number of sleep microawakenings and the proportion of REM stage,in addition,decrease the proportion of NREM3 stage in patients with depression.2.With the increase of the number of events,chronic stress first leads to an increase in the proportion of REM stage,and then to a decrease in the proportion of NREM3 stage.3.Depression patients with low stress intensity may be more prone to sleep apnea.