Sawatari H, et al. - The short-term impact of leg thermal therapy (LTT), topical leg warming, was gauged during this trial on the sleep quality of chronic heart failure (HF) patients. An improvement could be gained on the subjective and objective sleep quality of the study cohort through the short-term LTT. Hence, it could serve as a complementary therapy to improve sleep quality in such individuals.

Methods

• During this trial, 18 of 23 patients with stable HF received LTT (15 min of warming at 45 °C and 30 min of insulation) at bedtime for 3 consecutive nights and 5 patients served as control.
• A scrutiny was performed of the subjective sleep quality by St. Mary’s Hospital Sleep Questionnaire, Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi Sleep Inventory, and Epworth sleepiness scale, and also objectively assessed by polysomnography.

Results

• A notable improvement was unveiled in the subjective sleep quality indicated by depth of sleep (p < 0.01), sleep duration (p < 0.05), number of awaking (p < 0.01), nap duration (p < 0.01), sleep quality (p < 0.05), and sleep satisfaction (p < 0.05).
• Objective confirmation was provided by a slight but prominent decrease of sleep stage N1 (p < 0.01), and increase in sleep stage N2 (p < 0.05).