Better Nights, Better Days for Children With Neurodevelopment Disorders

Summary

More than 90% of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) experience sleep problems, whereas less than 25% of typically developing children experience sleep problems. Poor sleep can have significant consequences for children's physical and psychosocial health, as well their caregivers' well-being. The impact of sleep problems on daytime functioning is even greater in children with NDD. Although there are a range of factors that may disturb sleep in children with NDD, the most frequent cause of sleep disturbance is behavioural insomnia. There is some evidence that behavioural interventions can be effective in improving sleep in children with NDD. However, this has not been tested through well-designed, large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Moreover, there are a number of significant barriers to access for insomnia treatment for children; most importantly, sleep interventions are often only provided by specialists, limiting access to treatment services. Instead, behavioural insomnia is often treated with advice about sleep hygiene and with the supplement melatonin, which is, at best, a short-term solution. The investigators, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an online sleep intervention that will be widely accessible and sustainable and will have the potential to dramatically improve the health of children with NDD and their families.

Conditions

• Nonorganic Insomnia
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Primary Insomnia

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

BNBD-NDD Intervention

The intervention comprises 5 sessions, consisting of educational materials followed by interactive activities, designed to facilitate the successful application of the behavioural strategies. Clinicians and caregivers share tips and recommendations about implementing the strategies, providing modelling and emotional/social support, through supplemental videos. Caregivers complete daily internet sleep diaries that track sleep-related variables and patterns, associations between changes in caregivers' behaviour and children's sleep, and associations between changes in children's sleep and their daytime functioning. At the end of each session, caregivers receive a personalized plan for the week, linking relevant session strategies to caregivers' goals for their children's sleep.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• IWK Health Centre

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Penny Corkum, PhD · IWK Health Centre; Dalhousie University

• Shelly Weiss, MD · The Hospital for Sick Children; University of Toronto

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

4 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-06-10

Primary Completion

2023-01-10

Completion

2023-01-10

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations