Studies Examine Sleep Problems in Children

Two studies being presented today focus on sleep and childhood.

A study (#0304) being presented later this morning as a poster suggests that napping may have a significant influence on young children’s daytime functioning. Results indicate that children between the ages of 4 and 5 who did not take daytime naps were reported by their parents to exhibit higher levels of hyperactivity, anxiety and depression than children who continued to nap at this age.

Another study (#0197) being presented this afternoon as an oral presentation reports that primary care pediatricians may be under-diagnosing sleep disorders in children and teens. Results show that less than four percent of children at 32 primary care pediatric practices were diagnosed with a sleep disorder, which is significantly lower than prevalence rates reported in epidemiological studies.

You can download the SLEEP 2009 abstract supplement as an 11 MB file in PDF format.