Annual Research Review: Sleep problems in childhood psychiatric disorders – a review of the latest science

Abstract

Hippocrates flagged the value of sleep for good health. Nonetheless, historically, researchers with an interest in developmental psychopathology have largely ignored a possible role for atypical sleep. Recently, however, there has been a surge of interest in this area, perhaps reflecting increased evidence that disturbed or insufficient sleep can result in poor functioning in numerous domains. This review outlines what is known about sleep in the psychiatric diagnoses most relevant to children and for which associations with sleep are beginning to be understood. There is a description of both concurrent and longitudinal links as well as possible mechanisms underlying associations. Preliminary treatment research is also considered which suggests that treating sleep difficulties may result in improvements in behavioural areas beyond sleep quality. To maximize progress in this field, there now needs to be: 1) greater attention to the assessment of sleep in children; 2) sleep research on a wider range of psychiatric disorders; 3) a greater focus on and examination of mechanisms underlying associations; 4) a clearer consideration of developmental questions; and 5) largescale well-designed treatment studies. While sleep problems may sometimes be missed by parents and health-care providers and hence constitute a hidden risk for other psychopathologies -knowing about these difficulties creates unique opportunities. The current excitement in this field from experts in diverse areas including developmental psychology, clinical psychology, genetics and neuropsychology should make these opportunities a reality.

Psychoneuroimmunology of Early-Life Stress: The Hidden Wounds of Childhood Trauma?

“…Fourth, early-life stress has been linked to alcohol and substance abuse disorders and smoking (Dube et al, 2003;Anda et al, 1999), which can increase inflammation levels (Crews et al, 2006;Shiels et al, 2014). Fifth, early-life stress has been associated with decreased total sleep and disruption in sleep architecture in rodents (Feng et al, 2007;Mrdalj et al, 2013;Tiba et al, 2004) and humans (Gregory and Sadeh, 2016;Kajeepeta et al, 2015). In turn, clinical experiments have shown that sleep deprivation is associated with an increase in the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines in humans (Irwin et al, 2006), and epidemiological studies have found that reduced sleep is associated with elevated levels of inflammation biomarkers (Miller et al, 2009).…”

Relationship Between Bullying Behaviours And Sleep Quality In School-Aged Children

“…Therefore, we cannot ignore the sleep difficulties that these children have and we must reflect about the relationships between this general sleep poor quality and other types of behaviour and disturbances. As Gregory & Sadeh (2016) write, it is increasingly evident that childhood sleep disturbances are predictors of a wide range of psychopathologies and behavioural problems, although some associations are little known and are yet to be explored.…”

Preschool children facing mass trauma: Disasters, war and terrorism

“…The practice guidelines 50 of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry emphasize the need to address the safety and efficacy of these medications with preschoolers, especially considering the developing brain of young children. Medications are justified primarily to treat comorbid symptoms among children 51 , for example sleeping problems 49,52 .…”