A study of sleep disorders in Indian children: Tip of the iceberg.

BACKGROUND

Insufficient quality and quantity of sleep has dangerous neurodevelopmental outcomes in the form of poor concentration, poor scholastic performance, hyperactivity and obstructive sleep apnea. There is no structured data on prevalence of various sleep behaviours and sleep related disorders in children in India. We aim to study sleep behaviour of children to know the common paediatric sleep related disorders.

METHODS

We enrolled 270 children between the age of 1 to 18 years visiting pediatric OPDs for minor ailments between June 2022 to June 2023 using Children Sleep habit questionnaire - (NICHD SECCYD, Wisconsin). Children having clinical features suggestive of obstructive sleep apnoea were further subjected to overnight level 1 Polysomnography study.

RESULTS

Most children had bed time consistency with average sleep duration of Mean ± 2SD (8.58 ± 1.35 h, N=270), which was shorter than global average. Allergic disorders were significantly high with prevalence of allergic rhinitis up to 30 % and asthma between 8-10 % in our study. Prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea on Polysomnography study was 5.6%, parent reported snoring 10 %, restless leg movements 30% and open mouth breathing in 35% Indian children. In our study, Asthma had statistically significant association with sleep disordered breathing and obstructive sleep apnea with p value < 0.01.

CONCLUSIONS

Asthma has statistically significant association with obstructive sleep apnoea in our study. Proper asthma treatment may reduce the burden of obstructive sleep apnoea in children. There is a growing need to screen children regularly for sleep related issues on routine visits.