Sleep Quality in Children with Primary Nocturnal Enuresis

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare a group of children with primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) with a healthy control group by assessing sleep quality. Methods: This observational study comprised of 116 children aged between 5 and 15; 58 children, who had natural PNE and had attended the urology clinic as outpatients, and 58 healthy controls, who had referred to Baqiyatallah and Najmiyeh hospitals, Tehran, in 2016 and were selected by simple random sampling. All participants performed the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) test. The SPSS 13.0 (SPSS Inc.) software was used for data analysis. Results: Ten children (17%) from patients with PNE were preterm or had a difficult delivery (P = 0.02). Most healthy children (n = 26) had eight to ten hours of sleep each night, while in patients, the largest number (n = 28) had six to eight hours of sleep each night (P = 0.09). The need for the presence of parents or toys was higher in children with PNE. Being accustomed to eating and drinking before bedtime was significantly higher in children with PNE (P < 0.05). Sleep apnea was significantly higher in children with PNE (P < 0.05). Parents of 52 children mentioned nocturnal PNE as the only reason for lack of good sleep in their children (P = 0.01). Conclusions: Sleep problems in children with enuresis is one of the most important problems, which affects their lives. The current study confirms sleeping problems in children with enuresis. Sleep and enuresis have mutual impressions and one has to consider improvising of sleep quality in children with enuresis.