Volume 27, Issue 137, July 2023

A study of sleep problems and effect of COVID pandemic on sleep patterns in children and adolescents attending a tertiary care centre in Southern India

Shailaja V Mane¹, Nikhil Taneja^2♦

¹Professor and HOD, Department of Paediatrics, Dr DY Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pimpri-411018, Pune, Maharashtra, India
²Resident, Department of Paediatrics, Dr DY Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pimpri-411018, Pune, Maharashtra, India

^♦Corresponding author
Resident, Department of Paediatrics, Dr DY Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Pimpri-411018, Pune, Maharashtra India

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Children and teenagers who have difficulty sleeping have considerable mental and physical health issues. The present study aided to assess the prevalence of sleep disorders in children and adolescents. It would help create awareness amongst parents with children and adolescents with sleep problems. The need for health care professionals to study the sleep pattern among Indian children and adolescents would be assessed. Methods: This is cross sectional study was carried out amongst 299 children and adolescents between ages 1 and 18 attending the outpatient and inpatient department. Total 24 months were utilized for the study. Children and adolescents with serious and/or terminal illness were excluded. Results: The prevalence of sleep problems in this study was found to be 15.1% (45) from the 299 participants. From the total of 45 children with sleep problems, 78% (35) were school going children (5-12 years) and 20% (9) were teenagers (12-18 years). Pre-school children (3-5 years) constituted 2% (1). The sleep pattern was altered by the COVID pandemic in 43% (15) of school age children and 66.7% (6) of teenagers. The pandemic had affected older children (over 5 years of age). Conclusion: Two thirds of parents reported being unaware of their children's sleep issues. It was shown that sleep disturbances had a considerable detrimental influence on daytime functioning, including daily tiredness and suboptimal academic performance. The pandemic of COVID-19 disrupted sleep patterns by causing people to sleep more than required primarily school-age children and adolescents.

Keywords: Prevalence, sleep disorders, children, adolescents, Insomnia, Parasomnias, Bruxism, COVID-19

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e288ms3103

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i137/e288ms3103

Published: 09 July 2023