With the pain and anxiety of breast cancer often comes insomnia.
The dreaded middle-of-the-night awakenings and the inability to fall asleep are only a fraction of the hardships of battling the illness.
That's why Ann Berger and her team of researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center are working to lighten the load.
Berger, a professor in UNMC's College of Nursing, led a 2007 study that worked with 220 women to improve their sleep.
The participants, from 29 to 82 years old, had early-stage breast cancer and were undergoing their first round of chemotherapy during the study.
Half of the women used methods for better sleep, such as restricting the bed to a place for solely sleep and sex, while the other group received information for healthy eating, such as tips to limit fat and caloric intake.
Nurses visited the volunteers every two to three weeks over the course of a year to monitor their progress and provide new tips.
Data was collected from the women using personal sleep diaries, a pen-and-paper sleep index and wrist Actigraphs, which monitor movement while sleeping.
The different collection methods yielded different results.
The women in the sleep intervention group showed improvement in their quality of sleep, according to their self reports.
However, the actigraphs did not show progress in either section.
The lack of objective evidence doesn't mean the intervention wasn't effective, said Brett Kuhn, an associate professor of pediatrics at UNMC and a coinvestigator for the study.
He said insomnia is largely a perceived condition.
"People have different perceptions to what is problematic sleep versus normal sleep," Kuhn said.
Berger agreed: "Our perceptions don't always match the reality of what the objective matter shows."
The two were able to discuss the study's short-term results, but because publication of the long-term data is pending, they were not able to disclose their recent findings.
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
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