Association of night-time sleep and daytime napping with painful temporomandibular disorder

Abstract

Background: Painful temporomandibular disorder (TMD) is the common cause of chronic oro-facial pain, which may interfere with sleep. Previous studies have documented an association between sleep and TMD. Objectives: This study aimed to further explore the association of night-time sleep and daytime napping with painful TMD. Methods: A total of 419 patients (aged 31.88 ± 11.54 years with women forming 85.4%) from a TMD/Orofacial Pain center were enrolled. Patients' sleep conditions were evaluated with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire, and information on night-time sleep duration, napping duration and napping frequency was interviewed. TMD was diagnosed according to the Diagnostic Criteria for TMD protocol and stratified into myalgia (muscle pain), arthralgia (joint pain) and combined (muscle and joint pain) subgroups. The severity of TMD was measured with the Fonseca Anamnestic Index (FAI) questionnaire. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression models were established to explore relationships between sleep and painful TMD subgroups. Results: Patients with poor sleep quality (PSQI≥6) had higher FAI scores (median 60, p