Brief central apnoeas (CAs) during sleep are common in children and are not usually considered clinically significant unless associated with oxygen desaturation. CAs can occur spontaneously or following a movement or sigh. The aim of this study was to investigate acute cardiovascular changes associated with CAs in children. Beat-by-beat mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were analysed across CAs, and spontaneous and movement-induced events were compared using two-way analysis of variance with post hoc analyses. Fifty-three children (28 male/25 female) aged 7-12 years referred for investigation of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and 21 age-matched healthy controls (8 male/13 female) were studied. Children underwent routine clinical polysomnography with continuous blood pressure (BP) recordings. Movement-induced, but not spontaneous, CAs were more frequent in children with mild or moderate/severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) compared with healthy controls (P < 0.05 for both). Movement-induced CAs were associated with significantly larger MAP and HR changes across the event compared with spontaneous CAs. The percentage changes in MAP and HR between late-event and post-event were significantly greater for movement-induced compared with spontaneous CAs (MAP 20.6 +/- 2.3 versus 12.2 +/- 1.8%, P < 0.01; HR 28.2 +/- 2.6 versus 14.7 +/- 2.5%, P < 0.001). This study demonstrates that movement-induced CAs are more common in children with OSA, and are associated with significantly greater changes in HR and BP compared with spontaneous CAs. These data suggest that movement-induced CAs should be considered when assessing the cardiovascular impact of SDB.