Sleep patterns in patients with cancer and patients with cardiac disease.

Thirty cancer out-patients, 28 out-patients with cardiac disease, and 24 controls matched for age, sex, race, religion, and marital status were administered a 38-item questionnaire on sleep habits. Patients with cardiac disease perceived that they had more difficulty falling asleep, awakened earlier than planned, and felt sleepy during the day more often than the other two groups. Patients with cancer differed from controls only in feeling that they had more difficulty staying asleep. The findings demonstrate that while patients with two different chronic diseases have altered sleep patterns, the patterns are disturbed in different ways. This has important implications for therapy as a different approach is needed for the patient who has difficulty falling asleep as compared with the patient who has difficulty staying asleep.