Abstract
Purpose: Previous studies have shown problematic sleep behaviors of children with blindness and visual impairment. However, these studies were often based on (parent) self-report. The aim was to investigate differences in sleep patterns between blind children and normally sighted peers using objective measures.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study in Nepal, 100 blind (no light perception (11%) to best-corrected visual acuity <3/60) and 100 age and gender-matched normally sighted children aged 7–17 years wore actigraphs on their non-dominant wrists for one week. Total sleep time, Total time in bed and Number of awakenings, Latency, Efficiency, Wake after sleep onset (WASO), and the Sleep fragmentation index were measured. Age and gender adjusted linear regression models were used to analyze differences in sleep parameters between groups.
Results: Data of 167 children were available. Compared to normally sighted peers, blind children spent significantly less Total time in bed (β −31 min; 95% CI −56 to −6), had a lower Total sleep time (−41 min; −66 to −17), a smaller Number of awakenings (−2.8; −4.5 to −1.0), a lower WASO (−10 min; −16 to −5) and a more Efficient sleep pattern (1.5 percent; 0.1 to 2.8). Other differences were not significant (p = 0.06).
Conclusions: Although sleep quantity in blind children was smaller compared to normally sighted children, in contrast to earlier findings they seemed to have a better quality of sleep. The reason may be sought in institutionalization of most blind children, which might means stricter rules regarding sleep hygiene, such as ‘screen time’ before sleep.