Sleep disturbances in child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.

Symptoms of sleep disturbances are commonly associated with child and adolescent psychopathology. There has been considerable interest (both clinical and research) in sleep in relation to major depressive disorder, attention deficit disorder, and Tourette's syndrome. Despite evidence of subjective sleep disturbances, objective physiological studies (for the most part) have not produced clear, specific evidence of sleep disruption which is of clinical benefit at this time. The reasons for this may be due to the technical limitations of measuring sleep which may be unable to reliably detect subtle differences or may be due to maturational factors which protect the sleep of children and mask these findings. The interaction between the regulation of sleep and clinical disorders of affect, arousal, and behavior in children and adolescents appears to be a promising field for future research.