Types and prevalence of sleep disorders in school children in the city center of Trabzon

Types and prevalence of sleep disorders in school children in the city center of TrabzonIntroduction and Aim: There are nearly 85 sleep disorders that have been defined untill today. Insomnia and parasomnia are the most commonly seen sleep disorders in childhood. Sleep disorders cause dysfunctions in cognitive functions such as perception and conception, defects in accuracy and concentration and failure in social interactions. According to the studies made in other countries, the prevalence of sleep disorders in childhood is %25-40. A limited number of studies have been made on this issue in Turkey. This study aimed to define the prevalence and factors involved in the etiology of insomnia and parasomnia.Material and method: An 84-item questionnaire was administered to 5200 school children from different socioeconomic levels in 10 primary schools and 10 secondary schools. The questionnaire included items that elicited about the symptoms, findings of sleep disorders and the factors that predispose to them according to ICSD-2 diagnostic criteria, sleeping habits, demographic, social and economic conditions of children. Of the 5200 questionnaires, 4144 were evaluated after the inappropriate questionnaires were eliminated.Results: 2075 (%50.1) of the subjects were female, 2051 (%49.5) were male, and 18 (%0.4) did not define gender. The mean of age was 11.30+3.28 years. 780 (%18.8) of the subjects were diagnosed with insomnia and 1980 (%47.8) were diagnosed with parasomnia according to ICSD-2 diagnostic criteria.There was no gender difference between the patients diagnosed with insomnia and parasomnia. The evaluation of the subtypes of parasomnia revealed that snoring was seen more often in males and sleep talking and nightmares were seen more often in females, which is a statistically significant difference (p <0.05). Sleep talking was the most commonly seen parasomnia type with a ratio of %28.4, followed by bruxism in %14.1, nightmares in %12.9, primary snoring in %7.2, night terror in %5.7, enuresis in %4.7, and sleepwalking in %4.2 of the patients. Total sleep duration and prevalence of parasomnia decreased and prevalence of insomnia increased significantly with increasing age (p <0.05). Number of rooms in the house, room with adequate sleep hygiene, sharing of room and bed, number of people living in the house, monthly income level, parents? level of education, having chronic, psychiatric and allergic disease, problems in the house and divorce of parents, watching TV at times of sleeping and usage of electronic media increased the prevalence of insomnia and parasomnia (p<0.05).Result: Depending on the methods used, diagnostic criteria and prevalence, differences in the prevalence of insomnia and parasomnia was reported in the literature. Our findings are congruent with the studies that accept the similar criteria and observation frequency as us. The effect of the parameters that affect the prevalence of sleep disorders is similar to the literature. We believe that prevalence studies made from different areas of Turkey will be very important in having an insight into the importance of sleep disorders in childhood and their treatment methods.