Sleep disturbances in adults with chronic kidney disease: an umbrella review
Date
2025
Authors
Chu, G.
Matricciani, L.
Russo, S.
Viecelli, A.K.
Jesudason, S.
Bennett, P.
Fernandez, R.
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Journal article
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Journal of Nephrology, 2025; 38(2):353-369
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Abstract
Background: This umbrella review aimed to synthesise the existing evidence on sleep disturbances and sleep disorders in the adult chronic kidney disease (CKD) population.
Methods: A systematic search across five electronic databases. Reviews were grouped according to aspects of sleep and the focus of the review. The JBI critical appraisal checklist was used for quality assessment, and Preferred Reporting Items for Overviews of Reviews (PRIOR) guideline was used for reporting. The protocol was registered in the international registry PROSPERO (CRD42024527039).
Results: We identified 50 reviews covering three main aspects of sleep (sleep apnoea, restless legs syndrome and other sleep disturbances) across five focus areas (prevalence, interventions, health outcomes, determinants of sleep and patient experience). Most reviews reported on sleep disturbances (72%, 36 reviews) and focused on interventions (58%, 29 reviews). In contrast, evidence on sleep determinants and patient experience was limited. A high prevalence of sleep apnoea (49%), restless legs syndrome (27.2%) and other sleep disturbances (55%) was reported. Non-pharmacological interventions, including aromatherapy, dialysis, muscle relaxation, yoga, music, and nurse-led management, were found to improve sleep. However, this evidence was based on a single meta-analysis with few primary studies.
Conclusions: Despite the growing number of reviews on interventions to improve sleep, the evidence for their effectiveness is limited by the small number of primary studies and the high degree of overlap between reviews. Further research is needed to identify effective interventions. Additionally, qualitative studies exploring patients’ perspectives on sleep are essential, as evidence in this area remains scarce.
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Copyright 2025 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Access Condition Notes: Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions.