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Parental behaviors and sleep/wake patterns of infants and toddlers in Hong Kong, China

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Abstract

Background

To describe the sleep patterns of children below 36 months in Hong Kong, and evaluate the associations between parental behaviors and childhood sleep/wake patterns.

Methods

Parents of 1049 infants and toddlers completed an internet-based expanded version of the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire.

Results

Total sleep duration (P<0.001), frequency (P<0.001) and duration (P<0.001) of nocturnal awakenings decreased with age, whereas the longest sleep duration (P<0.001) and nocturnal sleep duration (P<0.001) increased with age. Children who room- or bed-shared with parents had later bedtimes (P<0.001), but similar sleep duration compared with those who had a separate sleep location. Falling asleep independently was associated with longer nocturnal sleep duration (P<0.001) and less sleep awakenings (P<0.001). Full-time employment of parents was associated with shorter total sleep duration of children (P<0.001). Although breastfeeding was associated with more nocturnal awakenings (P<0.001), no association was detected between breastfeeding and shorter sleep duration in children.

Conclusions

As infants and toddlers develop, their sleep consolidates. Falling asleep independently was associated with longer nocturnal sleep duration and fewer sleep awakenings, whereas sleep location was not. This is an important finding, especially for families with limited living space where parent/child room- or bed-sharing cannot be avoided.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Xin-Ting Yu

  2. Department of Gastroenterology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

    Xin-Ting Yu

  3. Department of Pediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, 6/F Lui Che Woo Clinical Sciences Building, Sha Tin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China

    Hugh Simon Lam & Albert Martin Li

  4. The School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Avi Sadeh

  5. Saint Joseph’s University and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jodi A. Mindell

Authors
  1. Xin-Ting Yu
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  2. Avi Sadeh
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  3. Hugh Simon Lam
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  4. Jodi A. Mindell
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  5. Albert Martin Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hugh Simon Lam.

Additional information

Funding: This study was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Products Worldwide, a division of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.

Ethical approval: Ethics approval for the overall international cross-cultural survey was obtained from Saint Joseph’s University’s Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research.

Competing interest: Mindell JA has received funding from Johnson & Johnson Consumer &Personal Products Worldwide, a division of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc. to conduct this study. For the remaining authors none were declared.

Contributors: Yu XT was responsible for analysis, manuscript draft and revision. Sadeh A was responsible for supervision of data collection and analysis, and contribution to study design. Lam HS was responsible for helping draft and critically review the manuscript. Mindell JA supervised the study and was responsible for critical review. Li AM was responsible for study design, manuscript revision and critical review. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript. Dedication: Professor Sadeh, a pioneer in the field of pediatric sleep and actigraphy, died on September 19, 2016. He was a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 25 years of clinical experience and over 130 scientific publications in the field. He was a kind and caring man, trusted colleague and influential researcher. He will be missed by all in the sleep community.

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Yu, XT., Sadeh, A., Lam, H.S. et al. Parental behaviors and sleep/wake patterns of infants and toddlers in Hong Kong, China. World J Pediatr 13, 496–502 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-017-0025-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12519-017-0025-6

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