Scientists are discovering more and more about the importance of proper sleep for children. A recent study from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has associated that sleep disturbances at an early age lead to health issues by the time kids grow up to be 10 or 11 years old.
With the study recently published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the research team urges the healthcare system to consider screening children for sleeping problems at a young age. Early intervention with sleeping problems can benefit the health of a child in multiple aspects.
Dr. Ariel Williamson from CHOP's Sleep Center explains that mild sleep problems over time can result in psychosocial impairments. "The range of impairments across academic and psychosocial domains in middle childhood indicate that it is important to screen for sleep problems consistently over the course of a child's development, especially to target children who experience persistent sleep problems over time," he explained.
The study involved 5,107 children invited at birth from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children - Birth Cohort. Reports from caregivers and teachers were combined with tasks completed by the children which helped the researchers measure emotional and behavioral functioning--this includes internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and self‐control. They were also able to look at the health‐related quality of life, cognitive skills, and academic achievement the authors wrote.
Effects of Sleep Problems
From the caregiver reports, almost 50 percent of the children had no sleeping problems. The rest had the following sleeping problems: persistent sleep problems through middle childhood, limited infant/preschool sleep problems, increased middle childhood sleep problems, and mild sleep problems over time.
Those with persistent sleep problems displayed the most significant impairments in all the tasks except for perceptual reasoning. Those with sleep problems through middle childhood scored well with academic achievement but struggled with the quality of life and psychosocial issues.
Meanwhile, children with mild and limited sleep problems had affected the quality of life and psychosocial issues as well, but on a smaller scale. In general, the four types of sleeping patterns resulted in psychosocial problems such as anxiety or depression and vice versa, meaning that psychosocial impairments could lead to developing sleep problems. Psychosocial impairments were most significant in children who developed sleep problems during late childhood.
Sleep Quality & Behavior
The cause of sleeping problems for children can be the result of various things from stress, caffeine, and from a recent study, frequent media use before bedtime. In a separate study from the Arizona State University (ASU) Department of Psychology, researchers found how media use affected sleep patterns and behavior.
Leah Doane and Sierra Clifford from ASU, along with their team, reviewed the behavior of over 500 children from ages seven to nine, especially with their ability to self-regulate. Children will more media exposure would stay up late and become sleepless, affecting their temperament. Doane said, "Instead of parents wondering how to help their child better regulate their behavior, they can try to focus on creating more consistent sleep and media use schedules."
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