Sarah Blunden

Behavior and Neurocognitive Performance in Children Aged 5-10 Years Who Snore Compared to Controls

Sleep disordered breathing in children is a common but largely underdiagnosed problem. It ranges in severity from primary snoring to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Preliminary evidence suggests that children with severe OSAS show reduced neurocognitive performance, however, less is known about children who snore but do not have severe upper airway obstruction. Participants included 16 children referred to the Ear, Nose and Throat/Respiratory departments of a Children’s Hospital for evaluation of snoring and 16 non-snoring controls aged 5-10 years. Overnight polysomnography (PSG) was carried out in 13 children who snored and 13 controls. The PSG confirmed the presence of primary snoring in seven and very mild OSAS (as evidenced by chest wall paradox) in eight children referred for snoring while controls showed a normal sleep pattern. To test for group differences in neurocognitive functioning and behavior, children underwent one day of testing during which measures of intelligence, memory, attention, social competency, and problematic behavior were collected. Compared to controls, children who snored showed significantly impaired attention and, although within the normal range, lower memory and intelligence scores. No significant group differences were observed for social competency and problematic behavior. These findings suggest that neurocognitive performance is reduced in children who snore but are otherwise healthy and who do not have severe OSAS. They further imply that the impact of mild sleep disordered breathing on daytime functioning may be more significant than previously realized with subsequent implications for successful academic and developmental progress.

Never Enough Sleep: A Brief History of Sleep Recommendations for Children

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: There is a common belief that children are not getting enough sleep and that children’s total sleep time has been declining. Over the century, many authors have proposed sleep recommendations. The aim of this study was to describe historical trends in recommended and actual sleep durations for children and adolescents, and to explore the rationale of sleep recommendations. METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify recommendations for children’s sleep requirements and data reporting children’s actual total sleep time. For each recommendation identified, children’s actual sleep time was determined by identifying studies reporting the sleep duration of children of the same age, gender, and country in the same years. Historical trends in age-adjusted recommended sleep times and trends in children’s actual sleep time were calculated. A thematic analysis was conducted to determine the rationale and evidence-base for recommendations. RESULTS: Thirty-two sets of recommendations were located dating from 1897 to 2009. On average, age-specific recommended sleep decreased at the rate of –0.71 minute per year. This rate of decline was almost identical to the decline in the actual sleep duration of children (–0.73 minute per year). Recommended sleep was consistently ∼37 minutes greater than actual sleep, although both declined over time. CONCLUSIONS: A lack of empirical evidence for sleep recommendations was universally acknowledged. Inadequate sleep was seen as a consequence of “modern life,” associated with technologies of the time. No matter how much sleep children are getting, it has always been assumed that they need more.

Are sleep problems under-recognised in general practice?

Aims: To evaluate the frequency of sleep problems in Australian children aged 4.5–16.5 years, and to determine whether the frequency of sleep problems on questionnaire predicts the reporting of sleep problems at consultation. Methods: Parents of 361 children (aged 4.5–16.5 years) attending their general practitioner for “sick” visits were asked to assess their child’s sleep over the previous six months using the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children, from which six sleep “disorder” factors and a total sleep problem score were obtained. Results: The percentage of children with a total sleep problem score indicative of clinical significance (T score >70 or >95th centile) was 24.6% (89/361). Despite this high frequency, parents only addressed sleep problems in 4.1% (13/317) of cases and reported that GPs discussed sleep problems in 7.9% (25/317) of cases. Of the 79 children who reported total sleep problem T scores in the clinical range, only 13.9% (11/79) discussed sleep with their general practitioner within the previous 12 months. Regression analyses revealed an age related decrease in problems with sleep-wake transition and sleep related obstructive breathing; sleep hyperhydrosis, initiating and maintaining sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness did not significantly decrease with age. No significant gender differences were observed. Conclusions: Results suggest that chronic sleep problems in Australian children are significantly under-reported by parents during general practice consultations despite a relatively high frequency across all age groups. Given the impact on children and families, there is a need for increased awareness of children’s sleep problems in the community and for these to be more actively addressed at consultation.

Children's sleep needs: is there sufficient evidence to recommend optimal sleep for children?

It is widely recognized that sleep is important for childrens health and well-being and that short sleep duration is associated with a wide range of negative health outcomes. Recently, there has been much interest in whether or not there are sufficient data to support the specific recommendations made for how much sleep children need. In this article we explore concepts related to childrens sleep need, discuss the theory, rationale, and empirical evidence for contemporary sleep recommendations, and outline future research directions for sleep recommendations. If sleep is to be treated as a therapeutic intervention, then consensus guidelines, statements, and evidence-based best-practice documents are needed to underpin sleep recommendations for children.

Are sleep education programs successful? The case for improved and consistent research efforts

Sleep duration and quality are associated with a range of neuropsychological and psychosocial outcomes in children and adolescents but community awareness of this is low. A small body of literature on sleep education programs in children and adolescents delivered through school-based programs is attempting to address this. A review of the literature found only 8 studies and 4 pilot studies in abstract form. This paper presents these sleep education programs and evaluates their effectiveness. In general, findings suggest that when sleep knowledge was measured it was increased in most programs. However this did not necessarily equate to sleep behaviour change such as increased sleep duration or improved sleep hygiene. Reasons for this are discussed and may include motivation and readiness to change, salience to the individual, delivery, content, time allocation, or methodological underpinnings. This paper attempts to understand this and assess how best to improve future sleep education programs from a theoretical perspective. Specifically, it considers the theory of planned behaviour which may assist in ensuring maximum efficacy for the current and future development of sleep education programs.

Symptoms of Sleep Breathing Disorders in Children Are Underreported by Parents at General Practice Visits

ABSTRACTSleep breathing disorders (SBD) in children are reportedly underdiagnosed in general practice. A contributory factor may be parental underreporting of symptoms. This possibility was examined by comparing the frequency with which snoring was mentioned at general practitioner visits by parents with frequency that snoring was reported on questionnaire evaluation immediately prior to consultation. We also examined the effects of age and gender on SBD symptoms. Parents of 626 children aged 0 to 16 years attending their general practitioner for sick child visits completed selected items from the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children and the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome Expanded Childhood Questionnaire. Parents and general practitioners were also asked if snoring was discussed at the current consultation visit or at a prior consultation visit in the previous 12 months. Eighteen percent (112 of 626) of children were frequent snorers (more than three times per week), whereas 0.6 to 5.0% of children snored and had one or more additional SBD symptom suggestive of obstructive sleep apnea. SBD symptoms tended to peak in early to middle childhood with few gender differences. We found that snoring was patently underreported by parents. In the children with a history of frequent snoring on questionnaire evaluation and where the reason for the consultation visit was documented, snoring was mentioned by parents at the current consultation visit in only 8% (8 of 100) of cases and at a prior consultation visit in only 15% (15 of 100) of cases. The present findings support a need for increased parental education regarding the symptoms and clinical significance of SBD.

Sleep problems are associated with poor outcomes in remedial teaching programmes: A preliminary study

Aim:  Problematic behaviour and deficient academic performance have been reported in children with sleep problems, but whether sleep problems are common among children presenting with primary behavioural and performance concerns in remedial programmes is not well studied. We studied this possibility in 80 Australian school children aged 6–15 years and then compared 15 of these children from mainstream schools to 15 demographically matched children in specialist behavioural programmes for problematic behaviour and academic difficulties.

The complexities of defining optimal sleep: Empirical and theoretical considerations with a special emphasis on children

The main aim of this paper is to consider relevant theoretical and empirical factors defining optimal sleep, and assess the relative importance of each in developing a working definition for, or guidelines about, optimal sleep, particularly in children. We consider whether optimal sleep is an issue of sleep quantity or of sleep quality. Sleep quantity is discussed in terms of duration, timing, variability and dose-response relationships. Sleep quality is explored in relation to continuity, sleepiness, sleep architecture and daytime behaviour. Potential limitations of sleep research in children are discussed, specifically the loss of research precision inherent in sleep deprivation protocols involving children. We discuss which outcomes are the most important to measure. We consider the notion that insufficient sleep may be a totally subjective finding, is impacted by the age of the reporter, driven by socio-cultural patterns and sleep-wake habits, and that, in some individuals, the driver for insufficient sleep can be viewed in terms of a cost-benefit relationship, curtailing sleep in order to perform better while awake. We conclude that defining optimal sleep is complex. The only method of capturing this elusive concept may be by somnotypology, taking into account duration, quality, age, gender, race, culture, the task at hand, and an individuals position in both sleep-alert and morningness-eveningness continuums. At the experimental level, a unified approach by researchers to establish standardized protocols to evaluate optimal sleep across paediatric age groups is required.

Sleep Education Improves the Sleep Duration of Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

PURPOSE To determine the feasibility and pilot a sleep education program in New Zealand high school students. METHODS A parallel, two-arm randomized controlled pilot trial was conducted. High school students (13 to 16 years) were randomly allocated to either a classroom-based sleep education program intervention (n = 15) or to a usual curriculum control group (n = 14). The sleep education program involved four 50-minute classroom-based education sessions with interactive groups. Students completed a 7-day sleep diary, a sleep questionnaire (including sleep hygiene, knowledge and problems) at baseline, post-intervention (4 weeks) and 10 weeks follow-up. RESULTS An overall treatment effect was observed for weekend sleep duration (F 1,24 = 5.21, p = 0.03). Participants in the intervention group slept longer during weekend nights at 5 weeks (1:37 h:min, p = 0.01) and 10 weeks: (1:32 h:min, p = 0.03) compared to those in the control group. No differences were found between groups for sleep duration on weekday nights. No significant differences were observed between groups for any of the secondary outcomes (sleep hygiene, sleep problems, or sleep knowledge). CONCLUSIONS A sleep education program appears to increase weekend sleep duration in the short term. Although this program was feasible, most schools are under time and resource pressure, thus alternative methods of delivery should be assessed for feasibility and efficacy. Larger trials of longer duration are needed to confirm these findings and determine the sustained effect of sleep education on sleep behavior and its impact on health and psychosocial outcomes. COMMENTARY A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 793.

Sleep, performance and behaviour in Australian indigenous and non-indigenous children: an exploratory comparison.

Aims:  Sleep problems in Australian children are common and consequential but have not been investigated in Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (indigenous) children. This study compares sleep in indigenous and non‐indigenous children and investigates potential effects on school performance and daytime behaviour.