Impact of nutrition on sleep in people with intellectual disabilities
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of nutrition on sleep in people with an intellectual disability.
IRAS ID
308238
Contact name
Lynette / LH Harper
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumbria University at Newcastle
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 17 days
Research summary
People with learning disabilities are more likely to have sleep problems than people who do not have learning disabilities (Bassell et al., 2015; Surtees et al., 2018). Some of the sleep problems that people with learning disabilities have are sleeping for less time, finding it harder to initiate and stay asleep, waking early, feeling sleepy during the day and feeling anxious about bedtimes. Sleep problems can have a negative effect on people’s cognitive, functional and social skills. This study aims to explore people with learning disabilities’ experiences of sleep and perceptions of their sleep problems before moving on to investigate the impact that nutritional interventions have on their sleep.
Semi-structured interviews will be used to collect data from people with learning disabilities. However, communication barriers may impede people with learning disabilities providing a rich data set. Therefore, talking mats will be used to
facilitate interactions during the semi-structured interviews with participants with learning disabilities. Talking mats are a communication tool to support those with severe communication difficulties to organise and express their perspectives on their life needs and behaviours (Cameron and Murphy, 2002).
Interactions using the talking mats will be video-recorded to observe for actions, verbal responses, placement of the pictures and non-verbal cues. Verbal and non-verbal communication will be analysed from the video-recordings using a predetermined conceptual framework.
The data collected from the semi-structured interviews will inform the data collection during the intervention phase of the study. Data collection will involve participants being asked to complete a sleep log, wear a watch that records sleep data and complete a sleep questionnaire. The intervention for group 1 will consist of eating kiwi fruit, for group 2 a vitamin D supplement and control of information about sleep hygiene. Participants will be asked to eat the food or take the supplement for 8 weeks.REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0154
Date of REC Opinion
5 May 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion