Child’s Sleep Duration Influenced by Parental Confidence and Sleep Duration

Summary: Educating parents about their own sleep health could help their children to get enough sleep, a new study reports.

Source: American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Study suggests that parental health behaviors may influence children’s sleep.

A new study indicates that children’s sleep duration may be influenced by parental sleep duration and confidence, which suggests that efforts to address insufficient sleep among children may require family-based interventions.

Results of a parental survey show that higher parent confidence in the ability to help children get enough sleep was significantly associated with an increased child sleep duration of 0.67 hours per day, after controlling for potential confounders such as child age, gender, race/ethnicity, and parent education. Overall, 57 percent of parents reported feeling “very” or “extremely” confident that they could help their child get enough sleep. The study also found that child sleep duration was 0.09 hours per day longer for each 1-hour increase in parent sleep duration.

“Our study suggests that educating parents about their own sleep health and promoting increased confidence in their ability to help their children get enough sleep are potential areas of intervention to increase child sleep duration, either through formal programs or in a pediatricians office,” said lead author Corinna Rea, MD, instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and attending physician at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Study results are published in the Nov. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

To promote optimal health, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children between the ages of 6 and 12 years should sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. Regularly sleeping fewer than the number of recommended hours is associated with attention, behavior, and learning problems, and it increases health and safety risks. The study also evaluated the relationship between child sleep duration and other parent behaviors and practices, including screen time, physical activity, and limits placed on child TV viewing. Surprisingly, after adjustment for demographic characteristics, these behaviors were not significantly associated with child sleep duration.

“Our results also may suggest that individual parent behaviors do not reflect a ‘family lifestyle,’ but rather that parental sleep is directly linked to child sleep irrespective of others behaviors,” explained Rea.

To promote optimal health, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children between the ages of 6 and 12 years should sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. NeuroscienceNews image is for illustrative purposes only.

The study involved 790 parents with a mean age of 41 years. Their children, who were between the ages of 6 and 12 years, were participating in a randomized controlled obesity trial. Trained research assistants administered a survey to parents over the phone. About 92 percent of respondents were mothers. Average daily sleep duration was 6.9 hours for parents and 9.2 hours for children.

According to the authors, the cross-sectional design of the study did not allow for an examination of causality. However, the authors noted that there are several potential mediators for the association between parent and child sleep duration. For example, parents may influence child sleep duration by serving as role models, encouraging and supporting their child’s healthy choices, or establishing a family bedtime.

About this sleep research article

Funding: The study was supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and by funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.

Source: Amy Pyle – American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Abstract for “Associations of Parent Health Behaviors and Parenting Practices with Sleep Duration in Overweight and Obese Children” by Corinna J. Rea, MD, MPH; Renata L. Smith, MPH; and Elsie M. Taveras, MD, MPH in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Published online November 2016 doi:10.5664/jcsm.6274

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “Child’s Sleep Duration Influenced by Parental Confidence and Sleep Duration.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 27 November 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/parent-confidence-child-sleep-5604/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]American Academy of Sleep Medicine. (2016, November 27). Child’s Sleep Duration Influenced by Parental Confidence and Sleep Duration. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved November 27, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/parent-confidence-child-sleep-5604/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “Child’s Sleep Duration Influenced by Parental Confidence and Sleep Duration.” https://neurosciencenews.com/parent-confidence-child-sleep-5604/ (accessed November 27, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Associations of Parent Health Behaviors and Parenting Practices with Sleep Duration in Overweight and Obese Children

Study Objectives
To examine the extent to which parent health behaviors and parenting practices are associated with school-age children’s sleep duration.

Methods

We surveyed 790 parents of children, aged 6 to 12 y, who had a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 90th percentile and were participating in a randomized controlled obesity trial. The main exposures were parent sleep duration, screen time and physical activity, parental limits placed on child TV viewing time and TV content, and parents’ confidence regarding their ability to help their child get enough sleep. The primary outcome was child sleep duration. We used linear regression models to examine associations of parent behaviors and parenting practices with child sleep duration.

Results
On average, children slept 9.2 h per night, whereas parents slept 6.9 h. Parents reported having an average of 1.9 h of screen time per day and 0.6 h of physical activity. There were 57.3% of parents who reported feeling very/extremely confident that they could help their child get enough sleep. In adjusted multivariate analyses, child sleep duration was 0.09 h/day (95% confidence interval: 0.03, 0.15) longer for each 1-h increment in parent sleep duration. Additionally, children whose parents reported being very/extremely confident they could help their child get age-appropriate sleep duration slept 0.67 h/day longer (95% confidence interval: 0.54, 0.81) than those whose parents were not/somewhat confident.

Conclusions
Educating parents about their own sleep health and enhancing parent confidence to help their children get enough sleep are potential areas of intervention to increase child sleep duration.

“Associations of Parent Health Behaviors and Parenting Practices with Sleep Duration in Overweight and Obese Children” by Corinna J. Rea, MD, MPH; Renata L. Smith, MPH; and Elsie M. Taveras, MD, MPH in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Published online November 2016 doi:10.5664/jcsm.6274

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