Lack of sleep linked to behavioral problems in kids

Getting too little sleep in early childhood is linked to cognitive and behavioral problems years later, a US study suggests.

Parents and teachers reported more problems in sevenyear-olds who didn’t get enough sleep during their toddler and preschool years, compared to peers who got an ageappropriate amount of sleep during those early years.

“Children who aren’t getting the recommended amount of sleep have more difficulties with attention, with emotional control, with reasoning, with problem-solving, and also have behavioral problems,” lead author Dr. Elsie Taveras told Reuters Health.

“What we found was that insufficient sleep in children was associated with poorer executive function and behavior,” said Taveras, who is chief of general pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston.

Executive function is basically the brain’s ability to process incoming information and respond to that information, Taveras said. “It’s almost like your brain’s functioning (as) air traffic control. Air traffic control has to know how to take in a bunch of information and how to process it.”

Taveras and her colleagues analyzed data on 1,046 children from a study that followed them from before birth. As part of the study, researchers had asked mothers how long the kids slept at age six months, three years and seven years. The mothers also filled out health questionnaires every year.

Insufficient sleep was defined as less than 12 hours during infancy, less than 11 hours for three- and four-year-olds and less than 10 hours for five- to seven-year-old kids.

Children who slept less than 10 hours per day at ages three to four years had lower scores from both mothers and teachers compared to kids who usually slept longer. The results were similar for five- to seven-year-olds who got less than 9 hours of sleep each night.

Sleep duration between six months and two years old was not linked to scores at age seven, according to the report in

Academic Pediatrics.

Taveras said that being consistent with schedules and routines and setting age-appropriate bedtimes are important for good sleep. –