Prevalence and pattern of sleep disorders in childhood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20231494Keywords:
Somnambulism, Somniloquy, Nocturnal enuresis, Nightmare, Night terror, Bruxism, Sleep disorders, ParasomniaAbstract
Background: Sleep disorders are very common in the population of children, with prevalence rates ranging from 25-40%, and they are often persistent. The aetiology of sleep problems is very complicated and depend on many varied factors. Psychological factors concerning family life and general state of health have a significant impact on children.
Methods: A hospital based descriptive study was carried out among 1024 children visiting the paediatric outpatient departments of Madras medical college, Chennai and Al-Ameen medical college and hospital, Vijayapura over a period of 1 year from March 2022 to March 2023. An appropriate questionnaire was formulated that had to be filled by parents and those children with sleep problems interviewed and assessed using appropriate statistical methods.
Results: Out of 1164 questionnaires, 1024 (88.97%) were filled completely and returned. The 497 (48.54%) boys and 527 (51.46%) girls were included in this study. Of the 1024 children, 621 (60.64%) had no sleep related problems. The 403 (39.36%) had one or more sleep related problem, which included 211 (52.36%) boys and 192 (47.64%) girls. Male children were more commonly affected with sleep disorders and there is statistically significant difference at 5% level among males and females in having sleep disorders (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Most of the children studied had only 1 of sleep disorders of which males outnumbered females. Sleep disorders were predominantly found in the age group of 7-10 years among which most common sleep related disorder was nocturnal enuresis. The study also showed that sleep walking is usually associated with another sleep disorder.
References
Guyton A, Hall J. Textbook of medical physiology. 13th ed. Philadelphia: Elseiver. State of brain activity-sleep: brain waves; epilepsy. 2016.
ICSD. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. International classification of sleep disorders, 2th ed.: Diagnostic and coding manual. Westchester, Illinois: American Academy of Sleep Medicine. 2005.
Owens JA. Epidemiology of sleep disorders during childhood. In: Sheldon SH, Ferber R, Kryger MH, editors. Principles and Practices of Pediatric Sleep Medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Saunders. 2005;27-33.
Mindell JA, Owens JA. A clinical guide to pediatric sleep: diagnosis and management of sleep problems. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams Wilkins. 2003.
Bruni O, Fabrizi P, Ottaviano S, Cortesi F, Giannotti F, Guidetti V. Prevalence of sleep disorders in childhood and adolescence with headache: a case-control study. Cephalalgia. 1997;17:492.
Stein MA, Mendelsohn J, Obermeyer WH, Amromin J, Benca R. Sleep and behaviour problems in school aged children. Pediatrics. 2001;107:60-64.
Archbold K, Pituch K, Panahi P, Chervin R. Symptoms of sleep disturbances among children at two general pediatric clinics. J Pediatr. 2002;140:97-102.
Laberge L, Tremblay R, Vitaro F, Montplaisir J. Development of parasomnias from childhood to early adolescence. Pediatrics. 2000;106:6774.
Simonds JF, Parraga H. Prevalence of sleep disorders and sleep behaviours in children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Psychiatr. 1982;21:383-8.
Hackett R, Hackett L, Bhakta P, Gowers S. Enuresis and encopresis in a south Indian population of children. Child Care Health Dev. 2001;27:35-46.
Byrd R, Weitzman M, Lanphear N, AuingerP. Bed-wetting in US children: Epidemiology and related behavior problems. Pediatrics. 1996;98:414-9.
Reimao R, Lefevre A. Prevalence of sleep talking in childhood. Brain Dev. 1980;2:353-7.
Sadeh A, Raviv A, Gruber R. Sleep patterns and sleep disruptions in school-age children. Dev Psychol. 2000;36:291-301.
Thorpy MJ. Classification of sleep disorders. Neurotherapeutics. 2012;9(4):687-701.
Acebo C, Sadeh A, Seifer R, Tzischinsky O, Hafer A, Carskadon MA. Sleep/wake patterns derived from activity monitoring and maternal report for healthy 1- to 5-year-old children. Sleep. 2005;28:1568-77.
Sadeh A, Acebo C. The role of actigraphy in sleep medicine. Sleep Med Rev. 2002;6:113-24.
Stevenson RN. Graham: A behavioural study. NY: Academic Press. 1982.
Burnham MM, Goodlin-Jones BL, Gaylor EE, Anders TF. Night-time sleep-wake patterns and self-soothing from birth to one year of age: a longitudinal intervention study. J Child Psychol Psychiatr. 2002;43:713-25.
Goodlin-Jones BL, Burnham MM, Gaylor EE, Anders TF. Night waking, sleep-wake organization and self-soothing in the first year of life. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2001;22:226-33.
Lozoff B, Wolf AW, Davis NS. Sleep problems seen in pediatric practice. Pediatrics. 1985;75:477-83.
Jacobson A, Kales A. Clinical and electrophysiology correlates of sleep disorder in Children Sleep. Physiology and Pathology, Philadelphia. 1969.
Broughton R. Sleep disorders: disorders of arousal? Enuresis, somnambulism, and nightmares occur in confusional states of arousal, not in "dreaming sleep". Science. 1968;159(3819):1070-8.
Vela- Buneo A, Bixler E O. Prevalence of nightmares and night terrors in elementary school children. Res Commun Psycho Psychiatry Behaviour. 1985;10.
Carter KA, Hathaway NE, Lettieri CF. Common sleep disorders in children. Am Family Physician. 2014;89(5).
Mindell JA, Kuhn B, Lewin DS, Meltzer LJ, Sadeh A. Behavioral treatment of bedtime problems and night wakings in infants and young children. Sleep. 2006;29:1263-76.
Stein MA, Mendelsohn J, Obermeyer WH, Amromin J, Benca R. Sleep and behavior problems in school aged children. Pediatrics. 2001;107:60-64.
Nunes ML, Bruni O. Insomnia in childhood and adolescence: clinical aspects, diagnosis, and therapeutic approach. J Pediatria. 2015;91(6):S26-35.
Esposito S, Laino D, D’Alonzo R, Mencarelli A, Di Genova L, Fattorusso A et al. Pediatric sleep disturbances and treatment with melatonin. J Translational Med. 2019;17(1):77.
Kennaway DJ. What do we really know about the safety and efficacy of melatonin for sleep disorders? Current Med Res Opinion. 2022;38(2):211-7.
Clemens S. Restless Legs Syndrome. In: Zigmond MJ, Wiley CA, Chesselet M-F, editors. Neurobiology of Brain Disorders. San Diego, CA: Elsevier. 2023;659-70.
