Study: Link between early sleep disturbances and later behavioral problems

Early infancy sleep disruptions can have a lasting impact on behavioral problems for children at age 10-11 years, according to new research.¹

In the study, Ariel A. Williamson, PhD, and colleagues, identified whether distinct sleep problem trajectories from infancy through middle childhood were linked to multiple aspects of child well-being at ages 10-11 years.

Williamson et al used data from the first 6 waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children—Birth Cohort, which involved 5107 children recruited at birth.

Each caregiver included in the study reported on sleep problems for the children at each time point; the investigator indexed child well-being outcomes at ages 10-11 years using a combination of caregiver-reported, teacher-reported, and child-completed tasks. The outcomes included emotional and behavioral functioning such as internalizing and externalizing symptoms and self-control, health-related quality of life, cognitive skills, and academic achievement.

The authors identified 5 distinct sleep problem trajectories over time using a latent class analysis. The problems were persistent sleep problems through middle childhood (7.7% of the sample), limited infant or preschool sleep problems (9.0%), increased middle childhood sleep problems (17.0%), mild sleep problems over time (14.4%), and no sleep problems (51.9%).

The results showed children with persistent sleep problems had the greatest impairments across the different outcomes, other than cognitive skills (perceptual reasoning), with moderate to large effect sizes.

On the other hand, children with increased middle childhood sleep problems also experienced greater internalizing and externalizing symptoms with a worse quality of life.However, there were few academic impairments in this subgroup of patients.

In addition, the participants with limited infant or preschool sleep problems and mild increases over time trajectories also showed internalizing concerns and worse caregiver-reported quality of life. These effects were smaller than the other sleep trajectories.

“The linkages between sleep problems and negative child outcomes across domains underscore the importance of early identification and targeted intervention to address sleep problems and promote child well-being,” the authors wrote.

“[F]ew studies have examined the continuity of sleep concerns and their association with developmental outcomes from infancy, when behavioral sleep problems are the most prevalent,” Williamson and colleagues noted. “More research is needed that assesses the impact of sleep problems from infancy through middle childhood, particularly as the first 10–11 years of life is a period of important child development, with the acquisition of foundational psychosocial and cognitive/academic skills and the transition to a formal school setting.”

A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication HCPLive.

Reference

1. Williamson AA, Mindell JA, Hiscock H, Quach J. Longitudinal sleep problem trajectories are associated with multiple impairments in child well-being. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2020;61(10):1092-1103.