Characteristics of sleep quality and influencing factors in patients with burning mouth syndrome: a preliminary analysis

To investigate the sleep quality in patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS) and its influencing factors, providing a basis for developing sleep intervention measures to reduce the impact of BMS symptoms.

This study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee, and informed consent was obtained from patients. A total of 150 patients with BMS and 150 healthy volunteers were enrolled as subjects in this study. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) was used to assess the sleep quality of patients with BMS. Visual analog scale (VAS) was used to assess the degree of oral mucosal pain, generalized anxiety disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) was used to assess the frequency of anxiety symptoms, and the patient health questionnaire depression questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess the frequency of depression symptoms. Univariate analysis was performed to identify potential influencing factors affecting sleep quality in patients with BMS, and multiple linear regression analysis was employed to determine independent risk factors.

The PSQI score for patients with BMS was 7.61 ± 4.29, which was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (P = 0.016). In the PSQI subscale analysis, patients with BMS exhibited increased sleep latency, decreased sleep duration, and lower sleep efficiency compared to healthy controls (P＜0.05). Patients with BMS and comorbid sleep difficulties had significantly higher scores on GAD-7 and PHQ-9 compared to the patients with BMS without sleep difficulties (P＜0.001), but there was no significant difference in pain VAS scores between the two (P = 0.068). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that longer disease duration (＞6 months), the presence of systemic concomitant symptoms (such as headache and mental stress), and higher depression scores were identified as independent risk factors affecting sleep quality in patients with BMS.

For patients with BMS, long course of illness, presence of headaches, high mental stress, and depressive symptoms may be independent factors affecting their sleep quality.