Do children living with a chronic disease have more disturbed sleep than their healthy peers?

Abstract

Study objectives: Living with a chronic disease (LCD) may impact sleep in children. We aimed to compare sleep in children LCD and healthy peers.

Methods: Design: Prospective study. Children and adolescents aged 6-17 years old answered the Sleep Screening Questionnaire Children and Adolescents twice and wore actigraphy (AG) for 7 nights and at-home polysomnography for 1 night. Statistics: Unpaired 2-sampled t tests and correlation tests.

Results: We included 65 LCD and 63 healthy age-matched children. Compared to the healthy peers, the 6-12 year olds LCD showed a clear tendency toward shorter total sleep time: AG: 16.1 minutes (95% confidence interval -0.3, 32.6), Sleep Screening Questionnaire Children and Adolescents: 19.9 minutes (-0.7 to 40.5), later chronotype and chronotype score: AG: 00:25 (-00:07, 00:57) and significantly longer objectively measured sleep latency (P = .02). Except for a higher sleep and feeling safe subscale score, no major differences in either Sleep Screening Questionnaire Children and Adolescents or AG measures were seen between the adolescent groups (13-17 year olds). In children with type 1 diabetes, inverse correlations between total sleep time and glycated hemoglobin (AG: r = -.49, P = .01; Sleep Screening Questionnaire Children and Adolescents: r = -.40, P = .01) were evident. Further, in children with tension-type headache, a strong inverse correlation between total sleep time and monthly headache attacks (AG: r = -.79, P = .04) was also found.

Conclusions: Children LCD present more sleep disturbances than healthy peers, especially in the 6-12 year olds. Sleep evaluation should be considered as part of the clinical evaluation.

Citation: Paulsrud C, Thorsen SU, Helms P, et al. Do children living with a chronic disease have more disturbed sleep than their healthy peers? J Clin Sleep Med. 2025;21(8):1417-1424.