A comment on sleep assessment of children with cerebral palsy: Using validated sleep questionnaire

BACKGROUND On the basis of clinical experience, it seems that sleep disturbances are common in children with cerebral palsy (CP); however, there is a lack of research and objective data to support this observation. AIM OF WORK Our aim was to assess sleep of children with cerebral palsy, using validated sleep questionnaire. SUBJECTS AND METHODS one hundred children with diagnosis of CP were investigated via sleep questionnaires, with their ages from 2-12 years. The 100 children with CP were divided into two groups, pre-school group (52 children had a mean age 2.35 ± 1.04 years) and school ages group (48 children had a mean age 10.21 ± 3.75 years). RESULTS We found high incidence of sleep problem in both pre-school and school age groups. We found that pre-school children have more prevalence of early insomnia (46.2%, P value 0.028) and sleep bruxism (50%, P value 0.000), while school group suffer more sleep disordered breathing (SDB) (50%, P value 0.001), more nightmares (50%, P value 0.001), more sleep talking (12.5% P value 0.049), and more excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) (62.5%, P value 0.001). CONCLUSION Results of our study indicate that CP children have high incidence of sleep problem in both pre-school and school age groups.