ABSTRACT
<b>Objective</b>: To assess the characteristics and influencing factors of sleep during a prehospitalization period in liver cancer survivors with frequent recurrences. <b>Methods</b>: A sleep pattern and mental health were analyzed in 12 patients who had recurrences of hepatocellular carcinoma during a pre-hospitalization period. Subjective sleep quality was assessed by PSQI-J, and objective sleep quality was measured with a actigraphic method. <b>Results</b>: The mean age of the subjects was 74.1 years and the mean number of recurrence episodes was 3.7. The mean PSQI total score was 6.7. The subjective assessment showed that 50% of the patients had a poor sleep pattern, required more time to fall asleep, had a shorter duration of sleep, and had poor sleep quality. The objective assessment showed that 50% of the patients slept for less than 360 minutes and that the patients did not have disturbance of sleep induction with a sleep latency of 3 to 29 minutes. The mean time of awakening episodes was 3.3. The hypnotic agent, severe fatigue, and poor mental health were identified as factors of the poor sleep pattern, as assessed by the subjective measures, and the hypnotic agent shortened and influenced the time spent awake after falling asleep. The subjective evaluation of sleep demonstrated inconsistency with the objective evaluation of sleep. Namely the patients with poor sleep pattern had higher sleep efficiency and significant short awakening times. <b>Conclusion</b>: The sleep pattern in liver cancer survivors was influenced by the hypnotic agent, mental health, and fatigue.