Abstract Aim: Sleep difficulties are a common problem among young children. Reduction in sleep affects cognitive processes and therefore has consequences for development and functioning in daily...Show moreAbstract Aim: Sleep difficulties are a common problem among young children. Reduction in sleep affects cognitive processes and therefore has consequences for development and functioning in daily life. Behavioural inhibition, which includes avoidant behaviour, is expected to be an important predictor for Sleep difficulties. Previous research stated that Physical activity on the other hand could reduce Sleep difficulties. Therefore this study investigated the role of Physical activity in the relation between Behavioural inhibition and Sleep difficulties in boys and girls aged five and ten. Methods: This study used data from the GGD Nederland. Questionnaires from the “Jij en Je Gezondheid vragenlijst” are used to measure the three variables. Parents of a total of 12118 five year olds and 11256 ten year olds completed the questionnaire. The data was analysed by a mediation analyses and a moderated mediation analysis in PROCESS SPSS. Results: The results show significant correlations between all the three mutual variables. This means that there is some dependence between the variables. In addition, significant relations were found, however the effect sizes of the mediation model were too small (d=.11) to be of actual meaning. Conclusion: The current study does not find enough evidence for Physical activity to be a mediator in the relationship between Behavioural inhibition and Sleep difficulties. Future research should use different psychometric measures and focus more on exercising rather than Physical activity in general.Show less
Sleep problems commonly occur in childhood, and are even more common in certain genetic syndromes (Agar et al., 2021). Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder in which sleep problems...Show moreSleep problems commonly occur in childhood, and are even more common in certain genetic syndromes (Agar et al., 2021). Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder in which sleep problems are prevalent, however, this has been understudied thus far (de Vries, 2018). Investigating potential factors influencing sleep problems in this group of patients is relevant considering the negative concequences for the patient and parents (Ashworth et al., 2017; Chu & Richdale, 2009. This crossectional study investigated the relationship between behaviour and sleep problems in a outpatient clinical cohort of 64 children and adolescents diagnosed with TSC. The primary caregiver completed the Sleep Disturbances Scale for Children (SDSC) and the Aberrant Behaviour Checklist (ABC). A total of 53.1% of patients presented with a total pathological sleep score. The most common pathological sleep problems were: “initiating and maintaining sleep” (28.1%) and “excessive somnolence” (23.4%). Furthermore, results indicated that irritability was significantly related to sleep problems in this cohort (r = .26, p = .039, 95% CI [.01, .47]). No significant relationship was found between hyperactivity and sleep problems (R2 = .067, p = .06). After controlling for the patient characteristics age, sex, epilepsy severity, genotype, and intelligence we found no relationship between behaviour and sleep problems in our study (p = .056). Alternative, not yet identified, patient or disease characteristics may be involved. This study revealed a high prevalence of sleep problems in TSC. All in all, in clinical practice, irritability can be seen as a potential risk factor for sleep problems in TSC and stresses the importance for screening for both behaviour and sleep. New interventions tackling both irritability and sleep problems may decrease the disease burden for both patient and parent.Show less
