Sleep in people with and without intellectual disabilities: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

BackgroundSleep problems are regularly reported in people with intellectual disabilities. Recent years have seen a substantial increase in studies comparing sleep in people with intellectual disabilities to control participants, with an increase in the use of validated, objective measures. Emerging patterns of differences in sleep time and sleep quality warrant pooled investigation.MethodsA systematic search was conducted across three databases (Ovid Embase, PsycInfo and Medline) and returned all papers comparing sleep in people with intellectual disabilities to a control group, published since the last meta‐analysis on the topic. A quality framework was employed to rate the risk of bias across studies. Separate meta‐analyses of sleep duration and sleep quality were conducted. Subgrouping compared findings for those studies with participants with genetic syndromes or neurodevelopmental conditions and those with heterogeneous intellectual disability.ResultsThirteen new papers were identified and combined with those from the previous meta‐analysis to provide 34 papers in total. Quality of studies was generally rated highly, though sampling provided risk of bias and adaptive functioning was rarely measured. People with intellectual disability associated with genetic syndromes or neurodevelopmental conditions sleep for shorter time periods (standardised mean difference = .26) and experience worse sleep quality (standardised mean difference = .68) than their peers. People with intellectual disability of heterogeneous origin show no difference in sleep time but have poorer sleep quality. There was some evidence that age moderated these effects.ConclusionsPeople with intellectual disability have poorer sleep than those without. Subtle patterns suggest that aetiology of intellectual disability moderates the topography of these difficulties, with further work needed to differentiate common and distinct mechanisms across groups.

Sleep Disorders in Adults with Intellectual Disability: Current Status and Future Directions

“…At least a third of adults with ID will experience multiple sleep difficulties [30], with older adults, and those with a higher severity of ID and/or associated physical and mental health co-morbidities at higher risk [31].…”

Long‐term effects of environmental dynamic lighting on sleep–wake rhythm, mood and behaviour in older adults with intellectual disabilities

“…The sleep-wake rhythm in older adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs) is often unstable and fragmented (Maaskant et al 2013). The instability and fragmentation are associated with sleep problems (Van De Wouw et al 2012;Van De Wouw et al 2013), which are found in up to 72% of this population (Van De Wouw et al 2012;Van De Wouw et al 2013) and are more common in people with IDs than in their typical developing peers (Surtees et al 2018;Böhmer et al 2020;Browne et al 2024). Sleep problems are associated with the high prevalence of depressive symptoms in older adults with IDs (Van De Wouw et al 2012;Hermans et al 2013;Maaskant et al 2013;Van De Wouw et al 2013).…”