To explore the clinical characteristics and motor activity profile during sleep periods of children and adolescents presenting with disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD).

Twenty-one youths (mean age±standard deviation, 11.7±3 years) wore a wrist actigraph for 9 consecutive days (including both school days and non-school days), to measure sleep parameters: sleep latency, sleep efficiency and the number and duration of periods of wakefulness after sleep onset (WASO). We divided the night-time actigraphy recording sessions into three sections and compared the first and last thirds of the night.

All the study participants had a psychiatric comorbidity (primarily attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depressive disorder or anxiety disorder). On non-school days, bedrest onset and activity onset were shifted later by about 1h. There was no significant difference between school days and non-school days with regard to the total sleep time. Sleep efficiency was significantly greater on non-school days. Sleep was fragmented on both school days and non-school days. The mean number of episodes of WASO was 24.9 for school days and 30.9 for non-school days. Relative to the first third of the night, we observed a significantly greater number of episodes of WASO during the last third of the night, a period associated with a larger proportion of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Sleep appeared to be fragmented in the study population of youths with DMDD. The greater frequency of WASO in the last third of the night points to a possible impairment of the motor inhibition normally associated with REM sleep.