An attempt to identify the sleep related disorders in asthmatic children

Abstract

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disorder of children. A significant feature that has not received the attention it deserves is the effect of asthma on quality of sleep itself and the consequent adverse effect on individuals’ performance in day to day activities. Increased daytime sleepiness and tiredness because of frequent nocturnal awakenings has been documented even in clinically stable asthmatic children. Hence this study is an attempt at identifying the prevalence of sleep related disorders in asthmatic children and once identified the therapy can be directed towards these nocturnal symptoms so that these children have a better sleep quality and day time performance. Methods: 125 asthmatic children in the age of 3 – 12 years as per the criteria IAP asthma by consensus attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care centre were classified into the category of asthma. The parents of the children were given the questionnaire sleep disturbance scale for children (SDSC) and were asked to recall the sleep related questions in the preceding 6 month period. Results: Out of the 125 children, 115 (92.0%) of children overall had significant sleep disturbance. The areas of sleep affected were disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep (88.8%); sleep wake transition disorders (87.2%) and disorders of excessive somnolence (89.6%). The use of inhaled corticosteroids with long acting beta 2 agonists showed a reduction of sleep related disorders in these children. Conclusions: It can be concluded that there is significant sleep disturbances in asthmatic children. These children have difficulty in initiating sleep and also have excessive daytime sleepiness and tiredness due to poor quality of sleep.