Abstract
Subjective estimates of sleep in patients undergoing maintenance haemodialysis at home showed significant differences between dialysis nights and other nights; both patients and spouses lost sleep on dialysis nights. The sleep debt thus accumulated was not so well repaid in spouses as in patients. No pronounced differences were found between sleep on various forms of maintenance haemodialysis, and sleep did not show a consistent change over the three days between dialyses. The findings are interpreted as indicating the importance of functional rather than physical causes of insomnia in dialysis patients.