Sleep Difficulties in Infancy Are Associated with Symptoms of Inattention and Hyperactivity at the Age of 5 Years: A Longitudinal Study.

Hanna Huhdanpää,Outi Saarenpää-Heikkilä,Isabel Morales-Muñoz,Pirjo Pölkki,Anneli Kylliäinen,E Juulia Paavonen,Eeva T Aronen,Tiina Paunio

doi:10.1097/dbp.0000000000000684

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Objective:Sleep difficulties are associated with cognitive and behavioral problems in childhood. However, it is still unclear whether early sleep difficulties are related to later development. We studied whether parent-reported sleep duration, night awakenings, and parent-reported sleep problems in early childhood are associated with symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity at the age of 5 years.Method:Our study is based on the Child-Sleep birth cohort initially comprising 1673 families, of which 713 were retained at the age of 5 years. We used the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire and the Infant Sleep Questionnaire, which were filled out by the parents when their child was 3, 8, and 24 months and 5 years old. Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity at the age of 5 years were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Five-to-Fifteen questionnaire.Results:Sleep duration at the age of 3, 8, and 24 months was associated with inattentiveness at 5 years of age. Moreover, parent-reported sleep problems at the age of 24 months were related to both inattentive and hyperactive symptoms at the age of 5 years. Finally, at the age of 5 years, parent-reported sleep problems and night awakenings were associated with concurrent symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity.Conclusion:Our findings suggest that certain sleep characteristics related to sleep quality and quantity in early childhood are associated with inattentiveness and hyperactivity at the age of 5 years. Interestingly, sleep duration in early childhood is consistently related to inattention at the age of 5 years.

Highlights

Based on previous studies,[15,17,18,19,20,21] we hypothesized that sleep duration, high number of night awakenings, parent-reported sleep problems, or their persistence during early childhood would increase the symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity at the age of 5 years
A tendency for night awakening at the age of 5 years was related to concurrent inattentiveness and hyperactivity-impulsivity
To study risks related to shorter sleep duration, we found on the basis of logistic regression models that shorter sleep duration (,13.0 hours per night) at the age of 3 months predicted inattentiveness (FTF inattentive scale score over the 75th percentile) at the age of 5 years [partially adjusted odds ratio (OR) 5 1.97, 95% confidence interval (CI) 5 1.31–2.95, p, 0.01; and fully adjusted OR 1.93, 95% CI 5 1.24–3.01, p, 0.01, respectively]

Summary

Introduction

Based on previous studies,[15,17,18,19,20,21] we hypothesized that sleep duration, high number of night awakenings, parent-reported sleep problems, or their persistence during early childhood would increase the symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity at the age of 5 years.

Results

Conclusion