ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Sleep Disorders
This article is part of the Research TopicBeyond Rest: Exploring the Bidirectional Relationship and Intersecting Pathways of Sleep and Physical HealthView all 17 articles
Preoperative Insomnia Exacerbates Postoperative Sleep Fragmentation in Elderly Arthroplasty Patients: A Prospective Cohort Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Peking University Third Hospital, Haidian, China
- 2Peking University, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract Background: Preoperative insomnia is prevalent among elderly arthroplasty patients, yet its impact on postoperative sleep disturbance (PSD) remains underexplored. This study investigated whether preexisting insomnia exacerbates postoperative sleep fragmentation in total hip/knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA) patients under spinal anesthesia. Methods: In this prospective cohort study 121 patients aged ≥65 undergoing THA/TKA were stratified by preoperative insomnia. Sleep was assessed via subjective metrics including Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). Meanwhile, the EEG-based monitor and actigraphy were used to assess the objective sleep quality and conduct sleep staging. Results: Pre-existing insomnia exacerbates postoperative sleep fragmentation, manifested by persistently elevated microarousals (operative night to postoperation day2, POD2) and prolonged sleep latency. Selective REM suppression occurs in insomnia patients during the acute postoperative phase (operative night and POD1), independent of NREM duration alterations. Subjective sleep quality assessments revealed that the insomnia group demonstrated significantly higher AIS and ISI scores compared to the non-insomnia group. Conclusion: Preoperative insomnia independently exacerbates postoperative sleep fragmentation in elderly arthroplasty patients. The study was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (Registration No. ChiCTR2400085184) on June 8, 2024.
Keywords: insomnia, Arthroplasty, sleep fragmentation, Sleep disturbances, Micorarousals, EEG-based sleep monitoring
Received: 08 Oct 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Su, Kang, Lai, Xiang, Wang, Han and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yongzheng Han
Xiangyang Guo
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.