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Investigators from multiple institutions conducted a study to evaluate the associations between sleep duration and bedtime consistency and school readiness in young children. For the study, they abstracted data from 2016, 2017, and 2018 cohorts included in the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and conducted by the US Census Bureau. NSCH includes questions about the health and well-being of US children <17 years old across multiple domains; responses are weighted to provide nationally representative estimates. For NSCH, surveys are sent to random addresses in the US where there are likely children in the family. Participants for the current study were children 3-5 years old whose parents/caregivers completed the NSCH.
The survey included questions related to school readiness across four domains: early learning skills, self-regulation, social- emotional development, and physical health and motor development. Within each of these domains, a child was classified as on track, needs support, or at risk for 3-7 items, and the number of items within a domain scored as “needs support or at risk”, and “at risk” were computed to develop a needs support/at risk index and at risk index. The number of domains that were “on track” for each participant (0-4) also was determined. The NSCH included items about daily sleep duration, with possible responses including ≤7, 8, 9, and ≥10 hours, and bedtime consistency (usually or always having a bedtime vs less consistency). Regression analyses were conducted to assess the association of sleep duration and bedtime consistency and the measures of school readiness, with adjustment for multiple sociodemographic and neurodevelopment covariates.
Data were analyzed on 15,402, 3−5-year-old children. Compared to children who were sleeping ≥10 hours daily, those sleeping ≤7 hours had significantly higher scores for both the needs support/at risk index and at risk index for each of the domains, with incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.44 to 4.97. There were no significant differences between children sleeping 8 or 9 hours daily, compared to ≥10 hours, for any domain. However, an inconsistent bedtime significantly was associated with higher index scores for both needs support/at risk and at risk categories for all domains. Compared to children who were on track for all 4 domains, children who were on track for 0 or 1 were significantly more likely to sleep ≤7 hours (vs ≥10 hours) daily. Having an inconsistent bedtime was also statistically associated with being on track for 0-1, and for 2 domains vs all 4 domains.
The authors conclude that sleeping 7 or fewer hours per day and/or having an inconsistent bedtime may negatively impact the school readiness of children 3-5 years old.
Dr Badawi has disclosed no financial relationship relevant to...
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