Sleep and Chronotype in Children With Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is the most common metabolic disorder in children and adolescents. Sleep is important for prognosis and several sleep parameters are related to metabolic control. However, limited number of studies in children and adolescents showed mixed results and recommendations about how to address sleep in the clinical care of diabetes in children are still lacking. There is a need to examine the potential role of sleep in preventive interventions.

The authors aimed to describe sleep/wake patterns ,sleep problems, and chronotype of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes, and to assess the relation of sleep measures with metabolic control and treatment.

The study has a prospective observational cross-sectional design. An estimated sample size is calculated as 83. Children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes between 6 to 18 years of age will be recruited from two pediatric endocrinology centers specialized in diabetes. Sleep/wake pattern will be assessed by actigraphy, and sleep diaries. Sleep wake patterns will be assessed by Philips Respironics Mini-Mitter Actiwatch-2 for at least 3 days at home environment and sleep diaries within 5-minute intervals will be filled out by parents. Actigraphy is a validated wristwatch-like device that distinguishes sleep from wakefulness based on accelerometer measured movement.

Sleep disorder will be assessed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) Sleep Disorder Scale, and Chronotype Questionnaire will be used to determine the chronotype.

For metabolic control, targeted standard values will be used for continuous glucose measurement. (Target daily blood glucose ranges 70-180 mg/dl, <4% <70 mg/dl, <1% <54 mg/dl, <25% >180 mg/dl, <5% rate >250 mg/dl). The latest Hemoglobin A1c level will also be evaluated.

A questionnaire developed by the investigators including sociodemographic characteristics, and diabetes related information will be gathered from the patient records.