# Sleep, pain, and recovery in kids after pediatric intensive care (SPARK-PICU)

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $737,030

## Abstract

Project Summary
More than 250,000 children survive pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) hospitalization each year in the United
States, yet we have an incomplete understanding of recovery trajectory and modifiable factors to optimize
survivorship. PICU survivors have multisystem diseases and suffer multisystem morbidities many years after
hospital discharge in physical, cognitive, and psychosocial health domains. Our preliminary data indicate
presence of clinically significant pain among 1 in 3 children and sleep disturbances in over 50% of children
months to years after PICU hospitalization, placing them at risk for poorer long-term health outcomes.
However, key knowledge gaps remain in understanding risk factors and mechanisms for persistent pain and
sleep disturbances in PICU survivors, limiting potential interventions that could have broad implications for
long-term recovery. For example, PICU survivors are known to suffer substantial cognitive impairments,
particularly within the executive function construct, crucial to long-term academic achievement, quality of life,
and psychosocial well-being. Chronic pain and sleep disturbances are potentially modifiable, and linked to
worse executive function in other pediatric populations. However, we have an incomplete understanding of the
impact of pain and sleep on executive function outcomes in PICU survivors. The central hypothesis of this
proposal is that pain and sleep disturbances are important post-PICU morbidities that are key mediators
between acute illness factors, psychosocial vulnerabilities and executive function outcomes in children after
critical illness.
We will conduct a longitudinal outcomes study of PICU survivors aged 8-18 years with the following objectives:
1) Identify pain trajectories and biopsychosocial risk factors for chronic pain in PICU survivors; 2) Elucidate
longitudinal sleep disturbances in PICU survivors and sleep-pain associations over 12 months; 3) Test the
impact of sleep and pain on EF outcomes in PICU survivors over 12-months. The study will utilize objective
measures of acute illness severity, novel metrics of psychosocial vulnerabilities, and a mix of objective
assessment and subjective report of pain, sleep, and executive function outcomes to comprehensively
evaluate temporal and mediating relationships 3, 6, and 12-months after PICU hospitalization. This proposal is
significant because it addresses the common and debilitating morbidities of chronic pain and sleep
disturbances that affect thousands of PICU survivors annually. Our data will identify risk factors across a
biopsychosocial framework to improve identification and treatment of pain and sleep disturbances, and aligns
with the National Institutes of Health Sleep Disorders Research Plan and Federal Pain Research Strategy. This
research will provide a greater understanding of sleep, pain, and executive function in PICU survivors key for
designing and implementing interventions aimed at optimizing recov...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10939194
- **Project number:** 1R01HL174653-01
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Cydni Nicole Williams
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $737,030
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-18 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10939194

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10939194, Sleep, pain, and recovery in kids after pediatric intensive care (SPARK-PICU) (1R01HL174653-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10939194. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*