Sleep Macrostructure and NREM Sleep Instability Analysis in Pediatric Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is considered to be abnormal motor skills learning, identified by clumsiness, slowness, and/or motor inaccuracy impairing the daily-life activities in all ages of life, in the absence of sensory, cognitive, or neurological deficits impairment. The present research focuses on studying DCD sleep structure and Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) parameters with a full overnight polysomnography and to study the putative correlations between sleep architecture and CAP parameters with motor coordination skills. The study was a cross-sectional design involving 42 children (26M/16F; mean age 10.12 ± 1.98) selected as a DCD group compared with 79 children (49M/30F; mean age 9.94 ± 2.84) identified as typical (no-DCD) for motor ability and sleep macrostructural parameters according to the MABC-2 and polysomnographic (PSG) evaluations. The two groups (DCD and non-DCD) were similar for age (p = 0.715) and gender (p = 0.854). More significant differences in sleep architecture and CAP parameters were found between two groups and significant correlations were identified between sleep parameters and motor coordination skills in the study population. In conclusion, our data show relevant abnormalities in sleep structure of DCD children and suggest a role for rapid components of A phases on motor coordination development

Sleep impairment in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Is it an additional symptom of ADHD or the result of comorbidities?

“…& Wiggs in 201162 and recently fortified by subjective and objective sleep evaluation 63,64 , we could not find data stating the prevalence of sleep problems neither in pure DCD nor in ADHD and DCD for comparison.…”

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders: how do they sleep?

“…DCD school-children, with respect to controls, have indeed a higher prevalence of bedtime resistance, parasomnias, and sleepiness during the day [85], but also presleep arousal and daytime fatigue [86]. At a neurophysiological level, the reported REM percentage reduction in DCD children may be considered a sign of altered cortico-cerebellar network activity [87] and NREM sleep instability organization may be linked to motor coordination disorders, suggesting a significant role of Cyclic Alternating Pattern phases (subtypes A2 and A3) on motor coordination development [88].…”