gms | German Medical Science

83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2012, Mainz

Article

Send article

Sleep Quality in Children with Sleep Disordered Breathing

Meeting Abstract

Search Medline for

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Alfred Dreher - ENT-Dept., Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Thomas Braun - ENT-Dept., Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
  • Fiona Baker - SRI Interational, Menlo Park, United States
  • Martin Patscheider - ENT-Dept., Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Mainz, 16.-20.05.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12hno62

doi: 10.3205/12hno62, urn:nbn:de:0183-12hno622

Published: July 23, 2012

© 2012 Dreher et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

In Adults, severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) causes disruption of sleep architecture including loss of slow-wave-sleep (SWS) and REM sleep. The effects of OSAS on sleep architecture seem less pronounced in children, probably because of the greater stability of their sleep compared to adults. But, the question remains whether children’s sleep architecture becomes more vulnerable to the effects of OSAS as they get older.

377 children with suspected OSAS (age 5.3±2.6 years) were examined by polysomnography. The children were divided into groups based on age: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 or more years of age. In every age group a correlation between Apnea-Hypopnea-Index (AHI) and the sleep-parameters (sleep efficiency, % SWS and % REM) was calculated.

The average AHI for the combined group of children was 8.0±15.0. The sleep-efficiency index was 88.1±7.7%. The portions of SWS and REM sleep were 22.0±9.1% and 13.9±5.5%, respectively. AHI was not significantly correlated with sleep efficiency (r = 0.07), % SWS (r = –0.18) or % REM (r = –0.13) in the combined group of children or within any age group examined. Correlation coefficients did not differ significantly between the different age groups.

In children there is only a weak correlation between OSAS and the macro architecture of sleep. This weak correlation does not increase with age in children between 2 and at least 7 years of age.