The effect of opioids on sleep architecture.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The effect of opioid medications on sleep architecture has been demonstrated in patients with comorbid pain or opioid addiction. This study examined whether commonly used opioid medications have an adverse effect on sleep architecture in healthy adults. METHODS Forty-two healthy subjects were examined with polysomnography after a bedtime dose of placebo, sustained-release morphine sulfate (15 mg), or methadone (5 mg) on each of 3 different nights in a double-blind multiple crossover study in a sleep laboratory in the General Clinical Research Center at an academic medical center. RESULTS Both opioid drugs significantly reduced deep sleep and increased stage 2 sleep (both p < .01); neither had an effect on sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, or total sleep time. CONCLUSIONS Single doses of oral opioid medications can significantly affect sleep architecture in healthy adults, and observed reductions in slow-wave sleep following opioid administration may have important implications for the pathogenesis of opioid-use related fatigue.

• Publication year

  2007

• Venue

  Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

• Publication date

  2007-02-15

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.5664/jcsm.26742PMID 17557450
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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