Sleeping Habits Amongst Riyadh Children: A Cross-Sectional and Validation Study

Abstract

Background: To validate the Arabic translation of the Children’s Sleep Habit Questionnaire and determine the behavioral prevalence of sleep habits amongst school aged children in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This prospective cross sectional study involved a Linguistic validation involving 50 bilingual parent participants in each of the Arabic and English Surveys, with a cross sectional pilot involving 1546 parent participants regarding their children’s Sleeping Habits. The Children’s Sleep Habit Questionnaire was distributed via Survey Monkey and subjected to IBM-SPSS statistics. Parents of 1546 school aged children ranging from 3 years to 12 years of age completed the survey.Results: The Total score of all domains ranged between 11 and 70. Mean Score of 35-37 in 11 % of this population. The Children’s Sleep Habit Questionnaire scores were High in comparison to the Owen’s article; greater research is needed to determine the underlying causes of the increased likelihood of sleep disorders.Conclusion: Our findings, especially in sleep anxiety are alarming and warrant for more research to determine underlying causes of the more prevalent sleep disorders (Sleep Anxiety) and any other apparent or possible causes for sleep disturbances amongst children.