Sleep disorders: impact on daytime functioning and quality of life

This article provides an overview of the daytime symptoms associated with the most common sleep disorders, namely insomnia, restless legs syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and shift wake–sleep disorder. Psychological and social dysfunction resulting from these sleep disturbances are explained and discussed in detail. Health-related quality of life is a concept that reflects the changes in diverse aspects of subjective wellbeing of the patients due to an illness. Therefore, studies reporting quality-of-life issues associated with the aforementioned sleep disorders will also be presented. Finally, we review the limited data regarding the effects of treatment on quality-of-life outcomes.