A questionnaire study on sleep disturbances associated with Prader-Willi syndrome

Background This study aimed to investigate the presence of sleep disturbances in children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) using the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC). Methods The SDSC, which was designed to identify the presence and severity of different sleep disorders, was applied to 50 patients with PWS and 112 controls. Results Patients with PWS achieved worse scores in the sleep-disordered breathing and disorders in initiating and maintaining sleep in the SDSC questionnaire as compared with controls. We also observed that patients with PWS were more prone to having hyperhidrosis. We did not observe significant differences in the presence of other types of sleep disorders (such as hypersomnolence) between the PWS and control groups. Conclusions The results obtained with the SDSC questionnaire showed that children with PWS have more sleep breathing disorders and disorders in initiating and maintaining sleep as compared to controls. Additionally, we demonstrated that patients with PWS associates significantly with the presence of hyperhidrosis during sleep. However, SDSC was not reliable to identify the excessive daytime somnolence in patients with PWS, as previously reported in the literature.