Patients with advanced cancer receiving terminal palliative care at the National Institute of Oncology in Rabat, Morocco, frequently experience sleep disturbances, and those disturbances are associated with poorer overall quality of life, according to a cross-sectional analytical study presented in the abstracts of the second edition of the African Congress of Nursing Sciences and Health Professions (CASIPS), published in BMC Proceedings.
The study, led by Maha Bensalem and colleagues from the Mohammed VI Faculty of Nursing Sciences and Health Professions at Mohammed VI University of Sciences and Health in Casablanca and the Ibn Sina University Hospital’s National Institute of Oncology in Rabat, enrolled 50 patients with advanced cancer who were receiving terminal palliative care. The researchers set out to investigate the relationship between sleep disturbances and overall quality of life in this population, a link they noted remains insufficiently explored despite sleep’s fundamental role in the well-being of patients in palliative care.
Quality of life was evaluated using the global score of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 15 Palliative Care (EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL). The association between the two variables was examined using Spearman’s correlation coefficient, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05.
The results showed that sleep disturbances were common in this group and had what the authors describe as a clear negative impact on patients’ quality of life. Patients who reported more frequent sleep problems tended to have poorer overall well-being, with a Spearman correlation coefficient of ρ = –0.469 and a p-value of 0.0006. The intensity of sleep disturbance showed an even stronger association: higher intensity was linked to lower quality of life with ρ = –0.522 and p = 0.0005.
Because the study is cross-sectional and analytical in design, it captures associations at a single point in time rather than demonstrating that sleep disturbances cause reduced quality of life. The correlation coefficients indicate a moderate negative relationship in both directions measured—frequency and intensity of sleep problems—within this specific sample of 50 patients at a single Moroccan oncology centre. The findings cannot be generalised beyond similar palliative care settings without further research.
Nevertheless, the authors conclude that sleep disturbances appear to be a priority symptom in patients with advanced cancer in terminal palliative care, and that appropriate management of sleep problems may contribute significantly to improving quality of life. They suggest that improving sleep may help enhance patients’ overall sense of well-being during palliative care.
The work was conducted with ethical approval from the ethics committee of the Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences (approval number CE/UM6SS/17/26), and all participants gave informed consent before taking part, including consent covering the intention to publish. The authors thanked the participating patients, the healthcare teams of Ibn Sina University Hospital and the National Institute of Oncology in Rabat, and members of their research laboratory for technical, administrative and clinical support.
The abstract appears within a collection of meeting abstracts from the congress, published as Volume 20, article number 34 in BMC Proceedings on 13 August 2026, as an open access compilation.
Subject of Research: Sleep disturbances and quality of life in patients with advanced cancer receiving terminal palliative care
Article Title: Abstracts from the second edition of the African Congress of Nursing Sciences and Health Professions (CASIPS)
Article References: Abstracts from the second edition of the African Congress of Nursing Sciences and Health Professions (CASIPS). (2026). BMC Proceedings, 20(25), 34. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12919-026-00384-2 (Author names are not included in the publisher’s citation export.)
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s12919-026-00384-2
Keywords: palliative care, advanced cancer, sleep disturbances, quality of life, cross-sectional study, Morocco, oncology, EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, nursing research, Abstracts, second
News Source: Nathaniel Bowman. (October 29, 2026). Poor Sleep Linked to Lower Quality of Life in Advanced Cancer Palliative Patients. Scienmag.
