Sleep Arousal Function in Enuretic Males

Abstract

Enuretic children are described as difficult to arouse from sleep. This paper reports on the clinical implications of auditory sleep arousal thresholds in 15 enuretic and 18 control subjects (7-12-year-old males). All children were studied in a sleep laboratory for four consecutive nights using standard polysomnographic recording techniques. Sleep was undisturbed for the first two nights and waking thresholds were measured on the following two nights. Enuretic children were found to wet most frequently in the first two-thirds of the night. Arousal attempts were successful in 39.7% of controls and 9.3% attempts were successful in enuretics. The results of this study suggest that enuretic males were more difficult to arouse than age-matched controls. The elevated arousal thresholds may have been the result of delayed maturation. Therefore, treatment programs that rely on awakening should be cognisant of these features.