Screening for Sleep Disturbances in Children and Adolescents with Tics, Headache Disorders or Type 1 Diabetes.

This article focuses on the prevalence and characteristics of sleep disturbances in children and adolescents aged 6-17 years with medical conditions—specifically tics/Tourette syndrome, headache disorders, and type 1 diabetes—compared to healthy peers, using the validated Sleep Screening Questionnaire–Children and Adolescents (SSQ-CA). The study found that 81.5% of children with these medical conditions reported sleep disturbances, notably poorer sleep quality and more frequent awakenings, compared with 70.9% of healthy children, though differences in sleep duration and latency were not significant. Increased screen time before bedtime was more common among children with medical conditions and was associated with poor sleep quality, identifying it as a modifiable risk factor. The findings highlight the widespread nature of sleep disturbances in pediatric populations and suggest that routine screening and interventions targeting sleep hygiene, particularly reducing prebedtime screen exposure, may improve sleep health and overall well-being.