Sleep duration, insomnia, and stuttering: The relationship in adolescents and young adults

Allergies, asthma, and sleep problems in adults who stutter

PURPOSE

Previous studies have suggested that allergies, asthma, and sleep problems are prevalent in those who stutter. This study analyzed similar data for a broad age group of adults who stutter (AWS).

METHOD

Data from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed. Adults from 18 to 60 + years of age reported a) to have stuttered, b) to have had any allergy, asthma, or acid reflux, c) to have had insomnia/trouble sleeping and daytime negative consequences, and d) average sleeping hours per day in the past 12 months.

RESULTS

The sample included 320 AWS and 33,043 controls. AWS were at greater odds of respiratory, food, and skin allergies (OR = 2.38, 2.36, and 2.09, respectively), as well as asthma and acid reflux (OR = 2.30 and 2.01, respectively) than controls. AWS were at greater odds of insomnia/trouble sleeping, oversleeping, excessive sleepiness, and fatigue than controls (OR = 2.11, 1.71, 2.67, and 1.81, respectively). The subgroup of AWS with no allergy, asthma, and acid reflux were also at greater odds of insomnia/trouble sleeping and excessive sleepiness than controls (OR = 2.13 and 3.11, respectively). Differences were found in specific age groups: younger/middle-aged AWS reported more allergies, asthma, and acid reflux than controls, while older AWS did not; younger/middle-aged AWS reported more insomnia/trouble sleeping than controls, while older AWS reported more oversleeping.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings on younger and middle-aged AWS are similar to previous ones on children and adolescents who stutter. Differences regarding younger/middle-aged and older AWS could be consequence of environmental variables.

Brazilian Consensus on Sleep-Focused Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences - 2023 Brazilian Sleep Association

Introduction  This consensus aimed to develop a structured document presenting the role of sleep-focused Speech-Language-Hearing (SPH) Sciences (SPHS). The recommendations were based on the expertise of specialists and on evidence in the literature, aiming to guide the coverage of this area and the consequent improvement in the quality of the professionals' approach. Methods  A Delphi method was conducted with 49 SLH pathologists (SLHP), four sleep physicians, one dentist, one physical therapist, and one methodologist. Four Delphi panel rounds were conducted in Google Forms. The items were analyzed based on the panelists' percentage of agreement; consensuses were reached when ⅔ (66.6%) of valid responses were on a same on a same answer (either "agree" or "disagree"). Results  Participants voted on 102 items. The mean consensus rate was 89.9% ± 10.9%. The essential topics were the importance of professional training, the SLH diagnosis, and the SLH treatment of sleep disorders. It was verified that all fields of the SLHS are related to the area of sleep; that sleep-focused SLH pathologists (SLHP) are the responsible for assessing, indicating, and conducting specific orofacial myofunctional therapy for sleep-disordered breathing alone or in combination with other treatments; that SLHP are included in interdisciplinary teams in the area of sleep in public and private services. Discussion  The Brazilian consensus on sleep-focused SLHS is a landmark in this area. This consensus described the scope of action of sleep-focused SLHP and systematized recommendations being useful as a reference for the professional practice in the area of sleep.

Sleep Problems, Social Anxiety and Stuttering Severity in Adults Who Do and Adults Who Do Not Stutter

Background: While there is sufficient evidence that children and adolescents who stutter reported more impaired sleep compared to children and adolescents who did not stutter, findings among adults who stutter (AWS) were scarce. Furthermore, stuttering is associated with issues related to verbal communication in a social context. As such, it was conceivable that AWS reported higher scores for social anxiety, compared to adults who do not stutter (AWNS). In the present study, we tested whether AWS reported higher sleep complaints compared to AWNS. We further tested whether scores for social anxiety and stuttering independently predicted sleep disturbances. Methods: A total of 110 AWS (mean age; 28.25 years, 27.30% females) and 162 AWNS (mean age; 29.40 years, 51.20% females) completed a series of self-rating questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, sleep disturbances and social anxiety. Adults with stuttering further completed a questionnaire on stuttering. Results: Compared to AWNS, AWS reported a shorter sleep duration, a lower sleep efficiency, higher scores for drug use in terms of sleep-promoting medications (significant p-values and medium effect sizes), and an overall higher PSQI score (significant p-values and large effect size), when controlling for age and social anxiety. Next, while p-values were always significant for subjective sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and daytime functioning, when controlling for age and social anxiety, their effect sizes were trivial or small. For sleep latency, the p-value was not significant and the effect size was trivial. Among AWS, higher scores for stuttering and older age, but not social anxiety, predicted higher sleep disturbances. The association between higher sleep disturbances and higher stuttering severity was greatest among those AWS with highest scores for social anxiety. Conclusions: When compared to AWNS, AWS self-reported higher sleep disturbances, which were associated with older age, and higher scores for stuttering severity, but not with social anxiety. Adults who stutter might be routinely asked for their sleep quality.

Evaluating the role of rare genetic variation in sleep duration

OBJECTIVES

To explore the roles of rare and high-impact variants in sleep duration.

DESIGN

Based on the recently released UK Biobank 200k exome dataset, an exome-wide association study was conducted to detect rare variants (minor allele frequency <0.01) contributing to sleep duration. Variant annotations were performed by the software tool ANNOVAR. Gene-based burden tests of sleep duration were conducted by the SKAT R-package. After quality control, 137,047 subjects were included in this study. CAUSALdb database was used to explore the related mental traits of identified genes.

RESULTS

We detected 730,572 variants with MAF < 1%, including 3873 frameshift variants, 3977 nonframeshift variants, 449,632 nonsynonymous variants, 1293 startloss variants, 10,254 stopgain variants, 413 stoploss variants, 261,130 synonymous variants, and 3102 variants are annotated as unknown. The burden test of exonic variants detected two exome-wide significant associations for sleep duration including TMIE at 3p21.31 (P_{Bonferroni adjusted} = 0.015) and ZIC2 at 13q32.3 (P_{Bonferroni adjusted} = 0.047). There are only nonsynonymous contained in TMIE; as for ZIC2, we detected 2 annotations of variants: nonsynonymous (P_{Bonferroni adjusted} =2.04 × 10^-4) and nonframeshift (P_{Bonferroni adjusted} =0.85). TMIE and ZIC2 were reported to be associated with several mental traits, such as chronotype, depression, and brain natriuretic peptide in published study.

CONCLUSION

This study reported 2 novel candidate genes for a sleep duration, supporting the roles of rare genetic variants in the regulation of sleep duration.