Sleep disorders and behaviour problems

Sleep-disordered breathing is associated with increased behavioural problems in children. Sleep-disordered breathing includes conditions like snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea in which breathing is blocked for short and frequent periods during sleep. Previous studies have reported behavioural problems in children with suspected sleep-disordered breathing. Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, USA conducted a community-based survey involving 829 children between the ages of 8 to 11 years. Sleep-disordered breathing was defined by parents who reported habitual snoring in their children or by measures of sleep apnoea obtained by overnight monitoring. Two well-validated scales were used to obtain parental ratings of children's behaviour. Overall, 5 per cent of the children were classified as having sleep apnoea, 15 per cent had snoring without sleep apnoea, and the remaining 80 per cent had neither snoring nor sleep apnoea. Children with sleep-disordered breathing were significantly more likely to have problems such as emotional instability, hyperactivity, aggressive behaviour and socialising difficulties. However, the findings don't prove that sleep problems cause behaviour problems. Studies looking at the reversibility of behavioural problems with treatment of sleep-disorder breathing are needed to answer the question of causality.