Sleep architecture in children with arousal disorders

Abstract Introduction Arousal disorders (AD) are sleep disorders that primarily involve behaviour typical of being awake (e.g. talking, walking, handling objects, yelling or crying). They present during partial arousal typically during slow wave sleep (SWS). By definition it has been suggested that parasomnias do not cause changes in sleep architecture or insomnia symptoms or daytime drowsiness. Method A comparative and retrospective study was conducted to study the sleep architecture of a group of paediatric patients with clinical and polysomnographic diagnosis of arousal disorders (ADG), paired by age and gender with a group of healthy children (HCG). The research was conducted at the Sleep Disorders Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. The Student's t test for independent samples was used to compare sleep architecture and a value of p < 0.05 was used to determine significance. Results There was a significant increase in rapid eye movement sleep (REM) and REM sleep latency and a significant reduction in light sleep (stages N1 and N2) in the ADG compared to the (HCG). Conclusions It has been reported that AD first manifests during the pre-school years and that the frequency of events gradually decreases and abate completely during adolescence, which is why AD is believed to be the manifestation of an immature central nervous system (CNS). It may be that the sleep architecture characteristics shown by patients in the ADG would correspond to CNS immaturity in healthy but younger children.