Habitual sleep and intraindividual variability of sleep in gifted children: an actigraphy study

The current study found that sleep maintenance and stability are key assessment items to understand the sleep of children with giftedness. Small group differences on sleep as those found here have been shown to be associated with academic performance, daytime sleepiness, emotional lability, and impulsive behaviors in school-age children.Because small sleep changes can have profound impacts on school-age children, we suggest that researchers and clinicians assess beyond exclusively classic sleep variables, such as average sleep duration, which mask nocturnal awakenings and night-to-night variability. While there is growing evidence that greater sleep variability is associated with poorer physical and emotional health studies have yet to examine these associations in children with giftedness specifically. Overall, there is a need for research focused on both predictors and consequences of sleep patterns and sleep variability in GC. Our interpretation of the present findings leaned toward a psychological standpoint, but neurophysiological data, including polysomnography and electroencephalogram, could surely provide additional, pertinent elements to further our understanding of sleep patterns in children with giftedness.

https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/full/10.5664/jcsm.10484