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.