Sleep problems of children with Down syndrome in northern China.
Most Chinese school-age kids with Down syndrome have a diagnosable sleep problem—screen every child.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Parents of 5- to 11-year-old children with Down syndrome in northern China filled out a sleep survey.
The team counted how many kids met the cutoff for a clinical sleep problem.
What they found
Seven out of every ten children had a diagnosable sleep issue.
The top three complaints were breathing pauses, short sleep, and fighting bedtime.
How this fits with other research
Tyagi et al. (2019) and Tse et al. (2020) found the same high rate of sleep trouble in Indian and Western kids with autism.
The pattern looks similar across diagnoses: most neurodevelopmental groups need sleep screens.
Sosnowski et al. (2022) add that culture tweaks the details—Saudi families see long sleep onset, UK families see night fears—so ask parents what the night actually looks like.
Why it matters
If you serve school-age clients with Down syndrome, add a quick sleep questionnaire to your intake.
Spotting breathing pauses or short sleep early lets you refer for medical care or teach bedtime routines before problem behavior snowballs.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Limited research has looked at the present-day sleep problems among Chinese children with Down syndrome (DS). This study aimed to investigate the situation of the sleep problems of school-aged children with DS in northern China. METHODS: Parents of children with DS were a convenience sample recruited through the special education schools of Shandong Province in China. The Chinese version of the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire was applied to assess the sleep problems of children with DS. RESULTS: Parents of 334 children with DS reported the average sleep duration was 9.7 (9.3-10.2) hours per night, and 62.0% of children with DS were reported sleeping less than 10 h per night. Additionally, the total prevalence rate of sleep problems among children with DS was 69.8%. Sleep-disordered breathing (59.2%), sleep duration (33.8%) and bedtime resistance (32.0%) were the three most commonly reported sleeping problems. Younger children with DS (age 6-8 years) had severe problems with bedtime resistance, sleep anxiety and parasomnias than older children with DS (age 9-12 years) (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Sleep problems are prominent among children with DS in northern China and are worthy of attention. Caregivers and health professionals should raise awareness of sleep problems in this group of children and implement targeted interventions to improve their sleep quality as early as possible.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2024 · doi:10.1111/jir.13187