Sleep disordered breathing in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Background Sleep disturbance is more prevalent in children with neurodevelopmental disorders compared to typically developing children. Few studies describing sleep disturbance in children with Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) and Angelman syndrome (AS), rare genetic syndromes associated with an intellectual disability, have investigated sleep related breathing disorders using validated measures.

Aims To compare the frequency of sleep related breathing disorders in children with SMS and AS to sleep related breathing disorders in typically developing (TD) children. A secondary aim is to explore putative associations between sleep disordered breathing and daytime sleepiness and sleep quality.

Method Seven day actigraphy assessments of sleep quality were conducted with 20 children with AS and 20 children with SMS. Data from community recruited TD children were aged-matched to each child with AS or SMS. Sleep related breathing disorder risk was assessed using the sleep related breathing disorder subscale of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire, which has good sensitivity (.81) and specificity (.87) relative to polysomnography.

Results 63% of children with SMS and 56% of the children with AS met the cut-off indicative of sleep related breathing disorder, compared to only 5% of typically developing children. No difference in total sleep time, fragmentation index or paediatric Epworth sleepiness score was found according to children's risk status for sleep-related breathing disorder for children with SMS and AS, p>.05.

Conclusions Assessments of sleep quality in children with neurodevelopmental disorders should include screening for sleep related breathing disorders.