Premium
Sleep, Neurobehavioral Functioning, and Behavior Problems in School‐Age Children
Author(s) -
Sadeh Avi,
Gruber Reut,
Raviv Amiram
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8624.00414
Subject(s) - actigraphy , psychology , child behavior checklist , developmental psychology , sleep (system call) , checklist , association (psychology) , test (biology) , clinical psychology , insomnia , psychiatry , paleontology , computer science , psychotherapist , cognitive psychology , biology , operating system
The aim of this study was to examine the associations between sleep and neurobehavioral functioning (NBF) in school‐age children. These variables were assessed for 135 unreferred, healthy school children (69 boys and 66 girls), from second‐, fourth‐, and sixth‐grade classes. Objective assessment methods were used on the participants in their regular home settings. Sleep was monitored using actigraphy for 5 consecutive nights; and NBF was assessed using a computerized neurobehavioral evaluation system, administered twice, at different times of the day. Significant correlations between sleep‐quality measures and NBF measures were found, particularly in the younger age group. Children with fragmented sleep were characterized by lower performance on NBF measures, particularly those associated with more complex tasks such as a continuous performance test and a symbol‐digit substitution test. These children also had higher rates of behavior problems as reported by their parents on the Child Behavior Checklist. These results highlight the association between sleep quality, NBF, and behavior regulation in child development; and raise important questions about the origins of these associations and their developmental and clinical significance.