Abstracts

Rationale: Sleep disorders and impaired cognitive performance are a common concern among pediatric patients with epilepsy (EP), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We identified objective sleep measures that differentiated EP, ADHD, and ASD children with and without parental sleep concerns and objective measures (actigraphy) to aspects of cognitive function. Methods: The present retrospective study examined parent-reported sleep problems in 34 children with EP, 18 with ASD, and 12 ADHD with mean age 4–14 years. The Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and Actigraphy-measured data were evaluated from three groups. The cognitive performance of three Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) subtests: motor planning task, simple reaction time task, and the Intradimensional/Extradimensional Shift task were assessed in EP, ASD, and ADHD groups. Categorical data were analyzed using a Pearson’s chi-square test. Numerical data were analyzed using a two-tailed t-test with unequal variance. SPSS software (version 22.0; SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA) was used to perform the statistical analysis. Significance level for all tests was p = 0.05. Results: ASD have more sleep (CSHQ score) impairment than EP and ADHD (p<0.03) and the following CSHQ subscores: night awakenings (p<0.04), sleep duration (p<0.03), and daytime sleepiness (p<0.04). The ADHD group significant difference for sleep-onset delay (p=0.02) and bedtime resistance (p=0.02) then EP.On actigraphic data (sleep latency, sleep efficiency, fragmentation) were significant difference (P<0.05) in ASD to compare EP. Actigraphy-measured sleep duration was correlated with estimates using CSHQ-reported bed and wake times in EP.Significant group differences (p<0.05) were found in performance on subtests, with the ASD group showing deficits in planning efficiency and extradimensional shifting relative to EP. The performance speed was more impaired in EP (p<0.05) then ASD and ADHD groups.  Conclusions: Although sleep problems are known to be common among young children with EP, ASD, and ADHD, results of this work may provide the basis for focused studies on large sample size to gain deeper understanding of sleep disturbances and cognitive impairment in these populations.  Funding: No funding