Sleep-related behavioral interaction between school-age siblings. Evaluation with CSHQ–PT

Abstract

Young children are susceptible to sleep disturbances, particularly those related to behavior. Consequently they are more vulnerable to the negative impact of a disturbed sleep. There should exist a close monitoring to understand some factors that may act as disrupters on the balance of this vital function. Several studies have demonstrated that familial interaction can be a source of conflict in the context of the implementation and maintenance of adequate sleep habits, however there is only scarce data about the particular role of inter-individual interaction within the family members. The aim of this study was to evaluate how school-age siblings with different ages interact regarding important sleep-related neurobehavioral aspects. The portuguese validated version of the Children Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ-PT) was applied to 20 parents of siblings with a range of ages between 4 and 10 years old in a clinical context of a private pediatrics office. A total of 40 school-age healthy siblings were enrolled for this study. The mean age of the global sample was 7.52 ± 2.03 years old (9.10 ± 0.97 for the older siblings and 5.95 ± 1.53 for the younger siblings). CSHQ-PT global score was 47.35 ± 6.95 (46.55 ± 6.49 for the older group and 48.15 ± 7.46 for the younger group) without differences between groups and there was a moderate correlation between both groups regarding to this score ( r = .602; p = .005). Sleep schedules and sleep duration were similar in both groups. Regarding the subscales of CSHQ-PT, a moderate correlation between groups was found in night wakenings ( r = .648; p = .002) and sleep duration ( r = .481; p = .032). Furthermore there was no statistically significant differences regarding the CSHQ-PT subscales between older and younger brothers. Although in a relative small sample, these data suggest that similar inadequate sleep-related behaviors meaning behavioral sleep insomnia are shared by children of the same family. This points to the fact that education about sleep hygiene habits should be implemented continuously in pediatric clinical practice to avoid the maintenance of this deleterious sleep habits.