Sleep problems in handicapped children: a preliminary study.

Data are reported from an exploratory study looking at the prevalence of sleep problems (broken sleep and limited hours of sleep) in a population of handicapped children. Some degree of difficulty occurred in over a third of the population. There were strong associations with age, a range of serious daytime behavioural difficulties and indices of family stress. Some support for distinct subgroups (night waking, limited hours) was obtained. The implications of these findings are discussed.