Sleep in Childhood and Adolescence: Age-Specific Sleep Characteristics, Common Sleep Disturbances and Associated Difficulties

Abstract

Sleep changes throughout the lifespan, with particularly salient alterations occurring during the first few years of life, as well as during the transition from childhood to adolescence. Such changes are partly the result of brain maturation; complex changes in the organisation of the circadian system; as well as changes in daily routine, environmental demands and responsibilities.Despite the automaticity of sleep, given that it is governed by a host of complex mechanisms, there are times when sleep becomes disturbed. Sleep disturbances in childhood are common and may stem from behavioural difficulties or abnormalities in physiological processes and, in some cases manifest into diagnosable sleep disorders. As well as occurring exclusively, childhood sleep disturbances often co--occur with other difficulties. The purpose of this chapter is to outline the neurobiology of typical sleep/wake processes, and describe changes in sleep physiology and architecture from birth to adulthood. Furthermore, common childhood sleep disorders are described as are their associations with other traits, including all of the syndromes presented in this handbook: ASDs, ADHD, schizophrenia, and emotional/ behavioural difficulties. Throughout, we attempt to explain possible mechanisms underlying these disorders and their associations.

Self‐reported sleep patterns and quality amongst adolescents: cross‐sectional and prospective associations with anxiety and depression

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Annual Research Review: Sleep problems in childhood psychiatric disorders – a review of the latest science

“…There have been numerous reviews on sleep and childhood disorders by ourselves (e.g. Barclay & Gregory, ; Gregory & Sadeh, ; Sadeh, Tikotzky, & Kahn, ) as well as others (e.g. Tesler, Gerstenberg, & Huber, ).…”

Sleep Health and Its Related Influencing Factors in Primary and Middle School Students in Fuzhou: a Large Multi-Center Crowd-based Cross-sectional Study

“…The older the age in our study, the higher the sleep score, where a higher score means poorer sleep. Some biological factors such as reduced homeostatic sleep pressure and delayed circadian rhythms in conjunction, as well as early high school start times and psychological changes from childhood to adolescence, might account for the differences in sleep among children and adolescents [14,15]. Elementary and junior high school students living in urban areas had more adverse sleep than those living in rural areas.…”