Sleep health in young women with breast cancer: a narrative review.

purposeThe purpose of this narrative review was to synthesize the evidence on sleep health in young women with breast cancer and provide recommendations for clinical practice and research.

methodsMultiple databases were searched (OVID Medline, OVID PsycINFO, OVID Embase, and Scopus) using the search terms "breast neoplasm", "young women", "sleep", "sleep disturbance", "sleep problems", "sleep deficiency", and "insomnia". There were 467 titles and abstracts screened, and 82 full-text papers were reviewed, yielding 11 research publications for inclusion.

resultsSleep problems are prevalent among young women with breast cancer and are associated with vasomotor symptoms of menopause and psychological symptom distress. The evidence, however, is weak due to methodological and design aspects of the studies.

conclusionsPoor sleep health in women with breast cancer is a clinically relevant problem that persists after treatment. As sleep is multidimensional and multifactorial, future research should evaluate sleep with objective sleep measures as well as self-reports; consider longitudinal designs; include factors that potentially contribute to poor sleep quality, such as physical and psychological symptom distress, family stressors, and competing life demands for this age group; and explore the perspective of this younger population of survivors on sleep. For clinical practice, survivorship visits should incorporate sleep assessment for all breast cancer survivors, especially younger women.