Yawning, sleep, and symptom relief in patients with multiple sclerosis

摘要

Background: Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) suffer from thermoregulatory dysfunction, and repetitive yawning and sleep problems are symptoms of MS. Because yawning and sleep are involved in ther-moregulation, we investigated the association between yawning, sleep, and symptom relief in patients with MS.Methods: Sixty patients filled out a questionnaire about how often they yawned, whether yawning provided relief of MS symptoms, and how sleep affected these symptoms.Results: Results showed that over one in three patients reported that their MS symptoms improved following a yawn, and of those experiencing relief, nearly half reported that it lasted for several minutes or longer. Not getting a good night's sleep often made MS symptoms worse, while napping during the day provided symptom relief.Conclusion: This is the first study showing that yawning provides symptom relief in patients with multiple sclerosis.