Sleep of pre-school children and their parents : FinAdo substudy

According to the Official Statistics of Finland, approximately 75% of the Finnish population become parents. At the same time, the grave impact of poor sleep on the health and wellbeing of an individual has been shown in numerous studies. Therefore, it is regrettable that studies have also shown that having a child deteriorates the sleep of the parent for a period of six years. During these six years the physical, psychological, and social development of the child is at its peak and the child needs a loving, constructive, and consistent adult to rely on. The aim of this study was to examine the interactions of child and parental sleep and their impact on the parental perceptions of child sleep. This study on healthy children living with their biological families and internationally adopted children was conducted as a part of the FinAdo 2 study, which is an on-going follow-up study examining the health and wellbeing of internationally adopted children in Finland. This collaboration allowed for examining the impact of genetic associations within sleep-related interactions. In addition to the 78 internationally adopted children, the study included 108 children living with their biological families, recruited from day-care facilities in Turku and Kaarina, Finland. The sleep of the children was examined by an actigraphy device, an activity sensor, during a period of one week. The parents answered on questions about socio-economic factors, and the sleep and well-being of the child and themselves. The recordings were repeated at approximately one year from the baseline for those willing to participate in the follow-up study. The study revealed that poorly sleeping parents perceive the sleep of their children being worse than what sleep parameters in the child’s actigraphy recording indicate. It also found that the poor sleep experienced by the parent does not precede child sleep problems one year later. The third finding was that parents of eveningtype children, those who prefer to stay up late and wake up late in the morning, are at a higher risk of later sleep problems than parents of morning-type children, those who prefer to wake up and go to bed early. These results underline the importance of addressing poor parental sleep quality, in addition to the child’s eveningness when discovering ways to help families with sleep related problems.Lasten ja heidän vanhempiensa uni - FinAdo osatutkimus Tilastokeskuksen tietojen mukaan noin 75 % suomalaisista saa elämänsä aikana lapsen. Samaan aikaan lukemattomat tutkimukset ovat osoittaneet vähäisen unen negatiiviset vaikutukset yksilön terveydelle ja hyvinvoinnille. Siksi onkin valitettavaa, että lapsen saannin on todettu huonontavan vanhemman unta kuuden vuoden ajaksi. Juuri näiden kuuden vuoden aikana lapsen fyysinen, psyykkinen ja sosiaalinen kehitys on nopeimmillaan ja hän tarvitsee rinnalleen rakastavan, luotettavan ja johdonmukaisen aikuisen. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää lapsen ja hänen vanhempansa unen vuorovaikutusta ja sen yhteyttä vanhemman käsitykseen lapsensa unesta. Tutkimuksessa arvioitiin terveiden, biologisissa perheissään elävien lasten ja ulkomailta Suomeen adoptoitujen lasten unta, ja se tehtiin osana ulkomailta Suomeen adoptoitujen lasten terveyttä ja hyvinvointia tutkivan FinAdo 2- tutkimuksen kanssa. Näin voitiin ottaa huomioon myös univaikeuksien perinnölliset mekanismit. Adoptoitujen 78 lasten lisäksi tutkimukseen osallistui 108 biologisissa perheissään eläviä, Turun ja Kaarinan päiväkodeista mukaan tulleita lapsia perheineen. Lasten unta rekisteröitiin viikon ajan aktigrafilla, joka on unta arvioiva aktiivisuusmittari. Lisäksi vanhemmat vastasivat omaa ja lapsensa unenlaatua ja hyvinvointia selvittäviin kyselyihin. Tutkimus toistettiin halukkaille noin vuoden kuluttua ensimmäisestä rekisteröinnistä. Tutkimuksessa kävi ilmi, että huonosti nukkuvat vanhemmat kokevat lapsensa unen huonompana kuin se on aktigrafilla mitattuna. Lisäksi todettiin, että vanhemman huono uni ei ennusta lapsen univaikeuksia vuoden seurannassa. Kolmantena löydöksenä todettiin, että lapsen iltavirkkuus, eli taipumus herätä ja mennä nukkumaan myöhään, on yhteydessä vanhemman huonoon uneen vuoden seurannassa verrattuna aamuvirkkujen, eli varhain heräävien ja varhain nukkumaan menevien, lasten vanhempiin. Nämä tutkimustulokset muistuttavat siitä, miten tärkeää on ottaa huomioon myös vanhemman unen laatu, ja toisaalta lapsen iltavirkkuus, kun käsitellään perheen uneen liittyviä huolia ja ongelmia

Normative values for sleep parameters in pre-schoolers using actigraphy

Objective: There are currently no reference values for actigraphy-measured sleep length and fragmentation in preschool children. We created standardized parameters using a community sample. Methods: Ninety-seven 2-to-6-year-old children (56 boys) wore an actigraph on their non-dominant wrist for seven days. The data was extracted and scored, calculating total sleep time, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, fragmentation index, circadian rhythm length, cosine peak and light/dark ratio. Subjects were divided into groups of 2-3-year-olds, 4-5-year-olds and 6-year-olds. Means and standard deviations were calculated, and reference values were created using the 2.5th and the 97.5th percentiles. Results: Reference intervals were 7 h 23 min-9 h 47 min for 24-hour total sleep time, 0.2-48.4 min for sleep latency, 69-87% for sleep efficiency, 23-53% for fragmentation index, 23 h 39 min-24 h 24 min for circadian rhythm length, 12: 37-15: 53 for the timing of the cosine peak, and 1.14-5.63 for the light-dark ratio. With increasing age, daily sleep time, sleep latency, sleep fragmentation, and napping decreased. Conclusions: We were able to create previously non-established reference values, including trends with increasing age, on actigraphy-assessed sleep in preschool children. Significance: Sleep disorders in young children are easier to evaluate against normative data. (C) 2018 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Changes in objectively measured sleep among internationally adopted children in 1-year follow-up during the first years in new families

Background Psychosocial risks and environmental changes experienced by internationally adopted children may predict sleep problems, which are incidentally among the main concerns of adoptive parents. Several questionnaire studies have found sleep of internationally adopted children to be problematic, but none of those used an objective measure in a controlled study. Objective To determine whether the objectively recorded sleep of internationally adopted children is worse than their controls who are living with their biological parents. Methods To this case-control part of the Finnish Adoption Study, we recruited children who were adopted internationally to Finland between October 2012 and December 2016. Simultaneously, control children were recruited from 16 daycare centers. To assess sleep in children, actigraphy recordings were made twice, 1 year apart, between December 2013 and April 2018. In the adopted group, the first assessment took place 10 months after they had arrived in their families. The associations between adoption status and sleep parameters were analyzed using linear mixed modeling and adjusted for multiple potential confounders, including child age. Results Seventy-eight internationally adopted children (boys 64%) aged 1-7 years and 99 controls (boys 53%) aged 2-6 years attended the first sleep recording. The recordings showed that the internationally adopted children slept longer (B = 0.48, 95% CI 0.23-0.73, P < 0.001) than the controls. There were no significant differences in sleep fragmentation or sleep efficiency between the groups. During the 1-year follow-up, the sleep patterns of the adopted children approached those of the controls. Conclusions The internationally adopted children spent more time in bed and slept more than their control children in both recordings. However, their sleep patterns were not very different from those of their peers and the differences appeared to vanish during the first years in their new family.Peer reviewe

Poor parental sleep did not predict future sleep problems in children aged 2-6 years

Peer reviewe

Child Eveningness as a Predictor of Parental Sleep

Child eveningness has been associated with many adverse outcomes for children. The aim of this study was to assess whether child eveningness poses a risk to parental sleep quality in follow-up. A total of 146 children (57% adopted, 47% boys, mean age at follow-up 5.1 years [standard deviation 1.7]) completed a 1-week actigraph recording to analyze their sleep twice, 1 year apart. The parents completed the Child ChronoType Questionnaire for their child and a short version of the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire for themselves and the Jenkins Sleep Scale for their sleep quality. Linear regression analyses showed that subjective parental sleeping problems at baseline were associated with subjective parental sleeping problems at follow-up. A morning-type child decreased the risk of parental sleeping problems at the 1-year follow-up compared to the child evening chronotype. Additionally, the child intermediate chronotype decreased the risk of maternal sleeping problems at the 1-year follow-up compared to the evening chronotype of the child. Parents of evening-type children experienced more sleeping problems in the follow-up, compared to parents of morning-type children. This finding encourages parents and professionals to steer the diurnal rhythm of evening-type children toward an earlier daily routine

Changes in objectively measured sleep among internationally adopted children in 1-year follow-up during the first years in new families

Background Psychosocial risks and environmental changes experienced by internationally adopted children may predict sleep problems, which are incidentally among the main concerns of adoptive parents. Several questionnaire studies have found sleep of internationally adopted children to be problematic, but none of those used an objective measure in a controlled study.Objective To determine whether the objectively recorded sleep of internationally adopted children is worse than their controls who are living with their biological parents.Methods To this case-control part of the Finnish Adoption Study, we recruited children who were adopted internationally to Finland between October 2012 and December 2016. Simultaneously, control children were recruited from 16 daycare centers. To assess sleep in children, actigraphy recordings were made twice, 1 year apart, between December 2013 and April 2018. In the adopted group, the first assessment took place 10 months after they had arrived in their families. The associations between adoption status and sleep parameters were analyzed using linear mixed modeling and adjusted for multiple potential confounders, including child age.Results Seventy-eight internationally adopted children (boys 64%) aged 1-7 years and 99 controls (boys 53%) aged 2-6 years attended the first sleep recording. The recordings showed that the internationally adopted children slept longer (B = 0.48, 95% CI 0.23-0.73, P Conclusions The internationally adopted children spent more time in bed and slept more than their control children in both recordings. However, their sleep patterns were not very different from those of their peers and the differences appeared to vanish during the first years in their new family.</p