Introduction:

The purpose of this research is to evaluate sleep disturbances in people with schizophrenia and to analyse correlations between sleep disorders, presence of metabolic syndrome and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Material and methods:

The research group was composed of 46 patients: 24 men and 22 women, all of whom had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and were not younger than 18 years. Using an actigraph the following sleep parameters were monitored: sleep efficiency, total time in bed, total sleep time, number of awakenings and length of awakenings. To assess negative symptoms of schizophrenia three scales were used: PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale), BNSS (Brief Negative Syndrome Scale) and SNS (Self-evaluation of Negative Symptoms).

Results:

Significant differences regarding sleep parameters were not observed between the group with metabolic syndrome and the group without metabolic syndrome. No significant correlations were found between sleep parameters and total PANSS score, total BNSS score, total SNS score and PANSS subscales. Correlations between sleep parameters and single PANSS and SNS items were reported.

Conclusions:

More multicentre research on a larger group of patients is required to confirm the obtained results.