NightLife Study

The ideal management for kidney failure is a kidney transplant, however, the availability of organ transplants are limited, and it is not always a suitable treatment option. As a result, many people with kidney failure rely on life-saving dialysis treatments. ‘Haemodialysis’ is the most commonly used dialysis therapy in the UK, and in most cases, haemodialysis is an ‘in-centre’ treatment, meaning it takes place at a hospital-based or satellite dialysis unit.

Although haemodialysis is a life-saving treatment, people still experience intrusive symptoms, limitations on their daily life, and ultimately their lives are shortened because of the kidney failure. Most in-centre haemodialysis treatments are organised three times a week, around four hours per session, with additional travel time either side. There is growing evidence that increasing haemodialysis treatment time is beneficial for overall health and well-being. Unfortunately, increasing treatment time during the day is limited by the hospital schedules and the large number of people needing haemodialysis.

‘In-centre nocturnal haemodialysis’ refers to overnight treatment at a hospital or satellite dialysis unit for six to eight hours, three times a week, almost doubling the total amount of haemodialysis per week. Receiving haemodialysis overnight also keeps the daytime free for people with kidney failure. The NightLife study is the first clinical trial across the UK to understand whether in-centre nocturnal haemodialysis can benefit quality of life, patient experience, clinical parameters like blood results and medications, and cost-effectiveness for the National Health Service (NHS) compared to the standard haemodialysis.