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Abstract

Background: Sleep issues are one of the principle medical problems raised by families. Consequently, we expected to assess the sleep problem of preschool youngsters in Hamadan province of Iran. Methods: Two hundred and fifty children aged 3-6 years were randomly enlisted from 12 kindergartens in the city of Hamadan in Iran. The Iranian version of BEARS (Bedtime problems, Excessive daytime sleepiness, Awakenings during the night, Regularity and duration of sleep and Snoring) and the Children's Sleep Habits questionnaire (CSHQ) were completed by interviewers. Information analysis was performed using SPSS version 18. The data were analyzed with a student's t-test, chisquare and Fisher's tests. In this study, P<0.05 was considered as significant. Results: The study population consisted of 130 boys (52.7%) and 120(47.3%) girls with a mean age of 4.1 years (SD 0.7). The mean body mass index (BMI) of the children was 14(SD 2.1). The average sleep duration among the children was 11:53h/ day(SD 00:38). They went to bed late (24:11h SD 00:46) and woke early (08:15h; SD 01:00). Daytime sleepiness was reported by 6.7% of the participants. The incidence of awakening during the night, sleep-disordered breathing and snoring was 12.5%, 1.1% and 3.6%, respectively. Most of the children shared a room with their parents (76%) (P>0.05). Conclusion: The children had sleep-related problems, including a late bedtime, delayed sleep onset, daytime sleepiness, midnight awakening, sleep-disordered breathing, and snoring. Sharing a room was very common among the Hamadan children.