Elementary-school-aged children commonly experience sleep problems, but little research has addressed the reasons behind this phenomenon.
A new study finds that children of this age say they have sleep difficulties much more often than their parents report such problems.
The findings, published in the November/December 2006 issue of the journal Child Development, are based on questionnaires completed by 300 pairs of 8-year-old twins and their parents in England and Wales. The researchers chose to study twins because such studies provide an opportunity to look at both genetic and environmental influences on a range of sleep characteristics and problems.
In the study, children reported more frequent sleep problems than their parents acknowledged. For example, 45 percent of children said they usually had difficulties falling asleep, while only 17 percent of parents reported this to be the case in their children.
The authors speculate that there may be many explanations for this discrepancy. For example, regarding night waking, parents may be unaware when their children wake during the night if the children go back to sleep easily. The inconsistency may also be due to difficulties children experience in reporting their problems, which may lead them to overestimate their troubles. Regarding delays in falling asleep, children, like adults, may over-estimate their sleep problems because of the way in which memory is processed around sleep in people who report certain sleep difficulties, such as insomnia.
It may be helpful for parents to ask their children directly about their sleep patterns and any difficulties they are encountering. Further research should be done to determine whether children are accurate reporters of their sleep problems.