Sleep disturbances may reinforce altered sleep patterns, cognitive deficits, and social engagement associated with schizophrenia, possibly with a negative impact on both patients’ and caregivers’ SWL. For these reasons, treatment plans for schizophrenic patients should explicitly incorporate strategies to deal assertively with complaints of poor sleep quality.
Limitations include the lack of objective evaluation of sleep (i.e., polysomnography or actigraphy) and of control for medication, stimulant (e.g., coffee and tea), and alcohol use. Moreover, we cannot be sure if the two groups are comparable on unobserved baseline variables, and the subanalysis was not powered.