An evaluation of sleep habits and childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus

Objectives Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease, known for its heterogeneous clinical presentation. Although it is rarer in children, a more severe clinical course can be seen than in adults. It is known that sleep has physiological and developmental importance in children, and there are many studies on sleep quality in adult SLE patients. The aims of this study are to evaluate the sleep habits of children and adolescents with SLE and to compare them with their healthy peers. Methods The study included 48 children and adolescents with SLE and 64 healthy peers as a control group. The Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire was used to evaluate the sleep characteristics of children. Results The age and gender of the children were similar across groups. The bedtime resistance and night waking scores of SLE patients were significantly higher than those of the control group. Total sleep score was higher in patients with SLE than in the control group, but there was no significant difference (47.13 +/- 7.63 vs 44.61 +/- 8.17; p=0.051). Similarly, the rate of sleep disorders in the patient group (75%) was higher than that of the control group (61%), though the differences were not statistically significant (p = 0.156). There was no correlation between disease severity and sleep problems. Conclusion This research demonstrated that sleep disorders tend to increase in children and adolescents with SLE. Therefore, clinicians should pay attention to sleep disorders during the follow-up sessions of children and adolescents with SLE.