Research links child sleep disturbance with behavioral difficulties
Local medical experts have completed a large cohort research to study the relationship between children's sleep and mental and behavioral problems.
After following 17,182 children between 3 and 4 years since their entry to kindergarten, doctors found sleep disturbances among preschool-aged children are associated with both resolved and incident emotional and behavioral difficulties. Therefore, routine screening and precise intervention for sleep disturbances should benefit children's psychosocial well-being.
Parents should heighten their awareness of young children's sleep problems and ask for doctors' professional guidance if their children have long-term sleep problems, which do not improve after intervention, said experts from Shanghai Children's Medical Center, which conducted the research.
The research's leading expert Dr Jiang Fan also leads the key laboratory of environment and children's health under the Ministry of Education. The lab has been focused on research into Chinese children and minor's sleep problems and intervention measures, promoting policies to renovate students' sleep quality and duration.
The research was published in world-leading journal JAMA Network Open.
Sleep is important to everyone and is even more important for children at their stage of rapid growth and development. Longer and better sleep can not only boost children's physical growth but also their brain, language, cognition and social emotion development. Sleep disorder is one of the commonest issues at pediatric clinics.
In the West, the incidence for children aged 6 and younger with sleep disorder is 20 to 30 percent, while it is 30 to 40 percent in China. Sleep problems can be associated with fatigue, poor concentration, and emotional and behavioral problems during waking hours, doctors said.
This research found the rule of development and change on pre-schoolers' sleep problems and their emotional and behavioral difficulties, and can be used as evidence for more useful and precise international measures and policies.
According to the research, the prevalence of emotional and behavioral difficulties at kindergarten entry and graduation years was 27.8 percent and 18.7 percent respectively, while the prevalence of sleep disturbances was 41.3 percent and 31.5 percent respectively.
Among those with such difficulties in their entry year, 35 percent maintained stability in the graduation year, while sleep disturbances were stable in 50 percent of those with sleep disturbances. For those receiving intervention for their sleep problems, their emotional and behavioral difficulties also improved.
Recommended sleep time for children aged 5 and younger in China
- 0 to 3 months old: 13-18 hours per day
- 4 to 11 months old: 12-16 hours per day
- 1 or 2 years old: 11-14 hours per day
- 3 to 5 years old: 10-13 hours per day
