Sleep, cognition and executive functioning in young children with cerebral palsy

Children with cerebral palsy (CP) are at higher risk for sleep disturbances than their typically developing peers. In typically developing young children, lack of sufficient sleep results in deficits in cognition, behavior and executive functioning. Unfortunately, research on sleep in infancy rarely focuses on children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Studies of older children with CP demonstrate that roughly half of children with CP have a sleep disorder, though screening for sleep disorders in children with CP is not routinely performed. Given the high prevalence of sleep abnormalities in older children with CP and the resulting adverse effects on functioning, understanding sleep derangements and how they affect cognition and executive functioning in these children at earlier ages is critical. In this chapter, we present the state of the evidence for sleep characteristics, cognition and executive functions for infants and toddlers 0-3years old with CP.