Longitudinal Study of Preschool Sleep Disturbance

Abstract

Findings support the hypothesis that maladaptive parental behaviors develop in reaction to preexisting sleep difficulties. Further, early sleep difficulties are more predictive than parental behaviors in explaining BD and foreshortened TST beginning at age 50 months. Results are interpreted in light of early emotive/physiological self-regulation problems.

What are the determinants of children's sleep behavior? A systematic review of longitudinal studies

“…Inconsistent evidence was found for a difficult temperament as a determinant of sleep quality [46,77]. We found no evidence for the determinant anxiety symptoms [41,46]. Insufficient evidence was found for all other examined psychological determinants.…”

“…Inconsistent evidence was found for a difficult temperament as a determinant of sleep quality [46,77]. We found no evidence for the determinant anxiety symptoms [41,46].…”

“…Inconsistent evidence was found for marital conflict in relation to sleep quality [48,75,76]. We found no evidence for marital depression [46,51] and parental bedtime behaviors (i.e., different ways of settling the child to sleep and maternal presence at sleep onset) [46,47,77,78]. Insufficient evidence was found for all other social-and physical environmental determinants in relation to sleep quality.…”

“…We found inconsistent evidence for an association between past sleep behavior (i.e., sleep quantity and quality) and current sleep quality outcomes [46,48,63,64,78]. We found insufficient evidence for all other examined behavioral determinants.…”

Sleeping through the night or through the nights?

“…This is consistent with many studies reporting an association with breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and sleep fragmentation. [20][21][22] While these practices could be associated with more sleep fragmentation, other factors could contribute to these findings. For instance, mothers who are breastfeeding and co-sleeping are more likely to observe their infant's night awakenings since they share greater proximity with their infant.…”