We are delighted that the main study findings from the POPPY Sleep study have now been published in the journal, Open Forum in Infectious Diseases. Our study showed that one in five POPPY Sleep participants had insomnia, with 13% having Restless Legs Syndrome and 6% Sleep Apnoea. In particular, insomnia was over five times more common in people with HIV than in the HIV-negative controls in the study - people with HIV with insomnia had poorer quality of life but despite this, very few people with insomnia had been diagnosed as having this by a doctor, or were receiving treatment for their insomnia. The findings from our study argue for better screening and advice for people with HIV about how to improve their sleep. More details about this study can be found here.
Recruitment for POPPY Sleep ended on the 31st July 2018 by which time we had recruited a total of 483 participants to the study - this is one of the largest studies of sleep disturbances among people with HIV worldwide, and is a brilliant result. Our thanks go out to all sites and all participants. In addition to the main study findings, we have also published findings from our sub-studies which reveal strong associations between sleep problems, pain, quality of life and mental health problems. We have also investigated some of the different measures that are often used to assess sleep quality, and have shown that associations with health outcomes may differ depending on the measure that is being considered. We have now started work to look at associations with some blood biomarkers - this work may help us to understand why some people with HIV experience sleep problems, and may suggest interventions that could be effective in people with HIV with poor sleep.