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Effects of the home environment on school-aged children's sleep

James C Spilsbury1, Amy Storfer-Isser, Dennis Drotar

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Behavioral Pediatrics, Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, Case School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106-6038, USA. jcs5@case.edu

Sleep
|December 13, 2005
PubMed

Insights

A supportive home environment encouraging social maturity in children is linked to better sleep. This includes longer sleep duration and more consistent bedtimes for elementary school-aged children.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Sleep Medicine
  • Child Development
  • Environmental Psychology

Background:

  • Sleep is crucial for elementary school-aged children's health and development.
  • Home environment characteristics can significantly influence child behavior, including sleep patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between home environment factors and sleep behavior in children aged 8-11 years.
  • To identify specific home environment characteristics that promote healthier sleep patterns.

Main Methods:

  • Cross-sectional analysis of 449 children (50% girls, 46% African-American) from the Cleveland Children's Sleep and Health Study.
  • Sleep data collected via child sleep journals and caregiver questionnaires.
  • Home environment assessed using the Middle-Childhood Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (MC-HOME) scale.

Main Results:

  • Higher Encouragement of Maturity subscale scores were linked to longer sleep duration and later bedtimes (P < .05).
  • In girls, higher Encouragement of Maturity scores correlated with less nightly sleep variation (P < .001).
  • Increased total MC-HOME scores were associated with longer sleep duration specifically in African-American children (P < .05).

Conclusions:

  • Parenting styles that foster social maturity in children are associated with improved sleep patterns.
  • The home environment plays a significant role in shaping children's sleep behavior.
  • Targeting home environment interventions may be beneficial for improving pediatric sleep health.
Abstract

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