Sleep Duration and Child Well-Being: A Nonlinear Association
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Although numerous studies among adults have shown a U-shaped association between sleep duration and health outcomes, fewer studies have investigated the theory that children also have an optimal sleep duration range, with both lower and upper limits. We evaluated whether children's sleep duration at ages 5 and 9 has a U-shaped association with both behavioral problems and physical health at age 9. We analyzed data from 1,965 participants in a longitudinal birth cohort, the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. This sample of children was 52% male and approximately 22% non-Hispanic White, 52% non-Hispanic Black, 23% Hispanic, and 3% some other race/ethnicity. The child's primary caregiver reported the predictor of interest: sleep duration at age 5 and age 9. Both children and primary caregivers reported on outcomes of the child's behavior problems (internalizing and externalizing) and overall physical health. We found that the association between children's sleep duration and well-being was typically nonlinear and U-shaped. Adjusting for their sleep duration at age 5, children who sleep either too much or too little at age 9 had higher levels of behavior problems and scored lower on a global measure of physical health. These nonlinear patterns were similar whether children or primary caregivers reported child outcomes, with the exception that there was a linear and increasing association of longer sleep duration and caregiver-rated child health. This study highlights that both short and long sleep duration may be risk factors for adverse behavioral and health outcomes in school-age children.
Authors: Sarah James, Lauren Hale
Institutions: Princeton University, Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook University
Language: English
Topic: Sleep and related disorders
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Longitudinal behavioral, sociodemographic and contextual predictors of young adult sleep health and well-being, Defining individual differences in tobacco smokers using multimodal neuroimaging, Infrastructure for Population Research, ECONOMIC STATUS, PUBLIC POLICY, AND CHILD NEGLECT, Fragile Families Summer Data Training Workshop Series 2021-2025, Infrastructure for the Office of Population Research, Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing - Young Adulthood, Child Care and Parental Employment in Fragile Families
OpenAlex ID: W2521571895