Children with sleep disorders

Parents of children with sleep problems are more likely to have sleep-related problems themselves, including more daytime sleepiness, as per a new study by scientists at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Brown Medical School.

"While most parents can testify that having a child with sleeping problems affects their own sleep, few scientific studies have looked at the relationship between children's and parents' sleep," says lead author Julie Boergers, PhD, with the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and Brown Medical School, and co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic of Hasbro Children's Hospital.

The authors studied 107 families seeking therapy for their children aged 2 to 12 at a pediatric sleep disorders clinic, and found a link between children's and parents' sleep problems. For both parents, having a child with more than one sleep disorder was linked to greater parental daytime sleepiness. Children in the study had a broad range of sleep problems, including obstructive sleep apnea, sleep terrors, insomnia, and bedtime refusal.

The study appears in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.

They also observed that the link between parental and child sleep was especially apparent for mothers. That is, within families, mothers of children with sleep disorders had significantly greater daytime sleepiness than fathers, even though they reported about the same number of hours of sleep per night.

"We think this might be because mothers tend to bear more responsibility for responding to children's sleep problems that may occur during the night, and this may disrupt their sleep to a greater extent than fathers' sleep," says Boergers.

Previous studies have shown that approximately 20 to 30 percent of preschool and school-aged children have sleep disturbances, and in turn, 53 percent of parents say they are awakened by their child at least once a week, as per a recent poll by the National Sleep Foundation.

Getting a good night's sleep can have an enormous impact on quality of life, both for children and parents, Boergers says, so parents need to recognize that their children's sleep problems can take a toll on them, as well.

"Anecdotally, we have observed that parents of children whose sleep disorders are successfully treated show great improvements in their own sleep and daytime functioning. Clinicians who treat sleep problems should be attentive to the possible presence of sleep problems or daytime sleepiness in other members of the family," says Boergers.


Posted by: JoAnn    Source