Sleep architecture in normal Caucasian and Hispanic children aged 6-11 years recorded during unattended home polysomnography: experience from the Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea Study (TuCASA).
OBJECTIVE
To obtain normative sleep architecture data from unattended home polysomnography in Caucasian and Hispanic children aged 6-11 years.


METHODS
Unattended home polysomnography was performed on a single night in Caucasian and Hispanic children aged 6-11 years as part of the Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea Study (TuCASA), a cohort study designed to examine the prevalence and correlates of sleep disordered breathing. A subset of 42 children enrolled in TuCASA who had no symptoms of any sleep disorder and had polysomnograms without technical recording problems.


RESULTS
Sleep architecture in preadolescent Caucasian and Hispanic children was not different between boys and girls. However, total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SLE) and time spent in REM sleep declined with increasing age. In addition, the number of sleep to wake stage shifts was slightly higher in younger children. Hispanic children had less Stage 3/4 sleep (18+/-1 vs. 22+/-1%, P</=0.02) and correspondingly more Stage 2 sleep (55+/-2 vs. 50.0+/-1%, P</=0.02) than their Caucasian counterparts.


CONCLUSIONS
Using unattended home polysomnography, indices of sleep duration and architecture are not different between preadolescent boys and girls. However, with increasing age, TST and SLE decreased. In addition, there are differences in sleep architecture between Caucasians and Hispanics, which may be an important consideration in the evaluation of children with sleep disorders.
Arizona Respiratory Center, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA. squan@resp-sci.arizona.edu
Stuart F
SF
Quan
James L
JL
Goodwin
Sardar I
SI
Babar
Kris L
KL
Kaemingk
Paul L
PL
Enright
Gerald M
GM
Rosen
Ralph F
RF
Fregosi
Wayne J
WJ
Morgan
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012016:Reference Values; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012891:Sleep Apnea Syndromes / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology; D012894:Sleep Stages; D044465:White People