Influence of sleep quality on macula and retinal nerve fiber layer in caucasian healthy adolescents: A cross-sectional assessment with optical coherence tomography

Abstract Objective: Poor sleep quality have affect on neuronal structure in central nervous system. We aimed to investigate the effects of sleep quality on the thickness of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), macula, and ganglion cell complex (GCC) obtained by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in healthy Caucasian adolescents. Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study,100 healthy adolescents were evaluated for determining of sleep quality score by the Pittsburgh sleep quality index(PSQI) and were monitored for detection of sleep efficiency(%) by Sense Wear PRO3 Armband mobile monitor(SWA). The sleep quality is evaluated based on the PSQI score and PSQI ≤5 was defined as “good sleep”, and a score >5 was defined as “poor sleep”. All subjects were scanned by spectral-domain OCT for the thicknesses of RNFL, GCC, and macular subfields. Results: Thirty nine of the subjects (39%) have poor sleep quality while 61 of them (61%) have good sleep. Inner superior (P=0.017), inner nasal (P=0.007), inner inferior (P=0.025), outer nasal (P= 0.011), and outer inferior (P=0.007) segments of macular thicknesses in the subjects with poor sleep are significantly thicker than those of the subjects with good sleep, whereas average RNFL of the adolescents with poor sleep is significantly thinner (P=0.02). All these parameters and central macular thickness have significant correlations with sleep efficiency and PSQI score (P<0.05). Conclusion: Sleep quality may have effects on macula and the nerve fiber layer of retina in adolescents and poor sleep may be related to decrease in the thickness of retinal nerve fiber layer.