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Sleep-wake disturbances commonly occur in healthy adolescents. Although diminished sleep and sleepiness seem normal for healthy adolescents, adolescents with chronic illnesses face additional disruption in the quantity and quality of their sleep as a result of the disease process, ongoing treatment, and associated symptoms. Little is known about how sleep in adolescents is affected by cancer, cancer treatment, and concurrent symptoms or about the consequences of sleep disruption for these patients. Although there is limited evidence to guide sleep measurement in adolescents with cancer, researchers may learn effective strategies from sleep studies completed with adolescents with other conditions. This systematic review examines how researchers have measured sleep using actigraphy, diary, and/or self-report questionnaires in diverse samples of healthy and ill adolescents. Psychometric properties are reported for nine self-report sleep questionnaires that were used in studies with mostly healthy adolescent samples. Nineteen studies provide evidence that actigraphy can be successfully and reliably used as an effective objective method to measure sleep in adolescents, including those with chronic illness. Daily sleep diaries were used less frequently to collect data from adolescents. The suitability of these techniques for the study of cancer-related sleep-wake disturbances in adolescents as well as strategies to enhance the reliability, validity, and feasibility of these measures will be discussed. Future sleep research in adolescents affected by cancer can be strengthened by the consistent use of sleep terminology, measurement of key sleep parameters, and efforts to develop and use psychometrically sound instruments. Oncology clinicians should be ready to add emerging evidence from sleep research to their care of adolescents with cancer.

The purpose of this study was to explore the association between daytime sleepiness on physical activity and functional outcomes in veterans with type 2 diabetes. Physical activity was based on mean self-reported minutes walked per week; the American Diabetes Association's recommendation of 150 minutes activity per week was used to dichotomize participants as sedentary or active. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale measured sleepiness. Sleepy participants had significantly lower scores on the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire. Sleepiness was predictive of being sedentary (p = .01) after controlling for age and body mass index. The conclusion is that daytime sleepiness may impede physical activity among veterans with diabetes, confounding self-management.

Empirical evidence on how parents of twins manage their need for sleep is nonexistent. Lay publications provide advice for parents of multiples, yet their recommendations have been neither studied for their frequency of use nor tested for their effectiveness. Parents of twins were interviewed by telephone regarding strategies they used to obtain sleep during the first 6 months postbirth. Reported strategies were grouped into a priori categories suggested by the literature. Findings indicated that parents attempted various strategies to increase their sleep but disagreed on their effectiveness. Development and testing of a repertoire of effective strategies tailored for parents of twins are needed.

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to investigate the effects of cranial electrical stimulation (CES) on sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, and caregiving appraisal., Methods: Thirty-eight participants were randomly assigned to receive active CES or sham CES for 4 weeks., Results: Both intervention groups demonstrated improvement in study measures from baseline scores. A trend toward statistically significant differences in daily sleep disturbances was found between the groups. No differences in depressive symptoms and caregiving appraisal were found between the groups., Conclusions: These findings did not fully support the efficacy of the short-term use of active CES versus sham CES to improve sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, or caregiving appraisal.

Sleep disturbances are common in infants and children. Sleep disturbances in children not only disrupt the child and family but also impact parental and child well-being, daytime functioning, and behavior. Pediatric nurses care for the individual child as well as their family members. Understanding the importance of healthy sleep habits and the implications of inadequate sleep on child behavior and family-peer interactions provides nurses an opportunity to decrease family stress and increase positive coping, adaptation, and family function. Common types of sleep problems are presented, and recommendations for screening tools are included to help nurses better assess sleep problems in children and make appropriate referrals.

Sleep is an important physiological process with profound impact on the body. Sleep undergoes normal developmental changes and common sleep problems are seen in general pediatric practice. This article discusses normal developmental changes related to sleep, common sleep disorders experienced by children and how nurses can assist parents in coping with these changes and disorders.

The purpose of this comparative study was to examine differences in sleep disturbance, sleep effectiveness, and sleep supplementation, as measured by the Verran/Snyder-Halpern (VSH) Sleep Scale, according to phase of adolescence as determined by chronological age and gender. Data were collected from 116 early, 116 middle, and 116 late adolescent boys and girls in classroom settings. Two-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to analyze the data. Three statistically significant findings emerged in the analyses. First, middle adolescents had the highest level of sleep disturbance among the three groups, which was statistically significantly higher than that found in late adolescents. Second, adolescent girls reported less sleep effectiveness than adolescent boys. Third, when the amount of sleep per day was analyzed, findings indicated that adolescent boys slept more than adolescent girls. The discussion of the findings includes implications for nursing research and practice.

Fifty-five randomly selected women over the age of 65 years participated in this study to determine the effect of progressive relaxation on their sleep patterns. Using a Pretest-Posttest Same Subject design, subjects spent 8 nights participating in the study. Progressive relaxation was introduced on days 4 and 5. Data were collected with polysomnography and the Sleep Pattern Questionnaire. It was found that progressive relaxation significantly improved certain sleep parameters. Nurses should encourage its use with older women who report disturbed sleep patterns and sleep dissatisfaction.

This article discusses the occurrence of night terrors (parvor nocturnus) in children. The characteristics of a typical night terror incident are described, as are the common parental reactions to such frightening events. Nurses who work with children and families need to know about the etiology and clinical course of night terrors. They need to be able to differentiate night terrors from other sleep disturbances and determine possible ways to alleviate the occurrences. This article emphasizes assessment, anticipatory guidance, education, and counseling. A practical guide for parents is included to provide families with information on ways to cope with night terrors.