3.7 INSOMNIA IN YOUTH WITH INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER

Abstract

Children and adolescents with intellectual developmental disability (IDD) experience insomnia, either transiently or persistently, at rates higher than the typically developing population. The sleep deprivation suffered by the parents is associated with family stress and lower quality of life, causing distress and often impairment in the youth with IDD. There is a rather broad differential diagnosis for the symptom of insomnia in this population, one often not considered by clinicians because they assume that sleep disturbance is to be expected with IDD.