Sleep Quality in Patients with Hemorrhoids

Clinical hemorrhoids are exceedingly common especially in the Western civilized world. It is difficult to assess their incidence but it is known to increases markedly with age; %50 of the population over 50 years of age have asymptomatic or symptomatic hemorrhoids (1). External hemorrhoids form in the skin tissue surrounding the anal opening. As a rule, their symptoms tend to be itching, burning, irritation and bleeding more than pain. They may swell causing discomfort and difficult hygiene (2). Thrombosed external hemorrhoids can be surgically removed (3). The precise relationships among colonic and rectal motor patterns, sleep quality, and awakening are incompletely understood. Furukawa et al (4) recently found that propagating contractions were eliminated during slow-wave sleep whereas during rapid eye movement sleep (REM), colonic pressure and propagating contraction frequency increased sharply to levels comparable with those found in stage 2 sleep. They concluded that sleep per se has a profound inhibitory effect on propagating and nonpropagating activity and was the major determinant of diurnal variation of colonic motility: propagating contractions were eliminated in slow-wave sleep and REM sleep, arousals, and waking had immediate stimulatory effects on colonic motility. On the other hand, relaxation techniques positively affect the psychosomatic pattern of patients Sleep Quality in Patients with Hemorrhoids