Abstract General Information

Title

Prevalence of sleep disorders in children and adolescents with primary monosymptomatic enuresis

Introduction and objective

Enuresis is described in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders 3rd edition as a parasomnia, which is an undesirable experience that occurs during sleep. It is associated with impaired arousal when the bladder is full and has been associated with sleep disorders. Its pathophysiology involves nocturnal polyuria, decreased bladder capacity and high arousal threshold. Furthermore, sleep deprivation may induce excessive nocturnal urine production and natriuresis in healthy children. Therefore, studying the sleep of children with enuresis is essential to better understand the condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of sleep disorders in children and adolescents with enuresis.

Method

Cross-sectional study that evaluated sleep using the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children. It differentiates between conditions such as sleep initiation and maintenance disorders, sleep-disordered breathing, arousal disorders, sleep-wake transition disorders, excessive sleepiness, and sleep hyperhidrosis. The cut-off point used was 39 as a presence of sleep disorders with a sensitivity of 0.89 and a specificity of 0.74. The results were divided into “pathological” (at least three episodes per week) and “normal” scores. The recommendations of the National Sleep Foundation were used to assess the total sleep time.

Results

The sample consisted of 35 participants, aged 7-13 (mean 10.3 ± 1.9), 51.4% were male. The prevalence of sleep disorders was 5.7%, being 5.9% in females and 5.5% in males. Most children slept less than 9 hours (88.5%), 25.7% had a sleep latency more than 30 minutes, 2.8% reluctant to go to bed, 2.8% snored, 5.7% had difficulty waking up and 5.7% scored more than 39.

Conclusion

The sample showed a low prevalence of sleep disorders. However, most of these children and adolescents slept less hours than the recommendation for their age and this may have had an impact on the presence of enuresis. Therefore, adequate sleep duration should be addressed by professionals who assist this population. Further studies with larger samples and a control group are needed to analyze this relationship.