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Published on: October 2, 2019
Children's sleep patterns from 0 to 9 years: Australian population longitudinal study
Anna M H Price1, Judith E Brown, Michael Bittman
1Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, , Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Insights
Australian children aged 0-9 years experience significant decreases in total sleep duration, with wide variations observed. These findings provide crucial normative data for assessing children's sleep patterns.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Sleep Science
- Developmental Psychology
- Public Health Research
Background:
- Accurate, age-specific sleep normative data is essential for identifying sleep issues in children.
- Previous data may not reflect current sleep patterns in the Australian pediatric population.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish precise population normative data for cross-sectional, age-specific sleep patterns in Australian children aged 0-9 years.
- To provide benchmarks for assessing typical sleep duration, onset, and wake times.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the first three waves of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).
- Included two cohorts recruited in 2004 (ages 0-1 and 4-5 years), assessed biennially.
- Parents prospectively completed 24-hour time-use diaries, recording sleep and napping in 15-minute intervals.
Main Results:
- Total 24-hour sleep duration decreased from a mean of 14 hours at 4-6 months to 10 hours at 9 years.
- Sleep onset times progressively delayed from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM; daytime sleep declined significantly.
- Marked variations in sleep duration, onset, and wake times were observed across all ages in this healthy population.
Conclusions:
- New centile charts provide valuable tools for parents and professionals to assess the normalcy of children's sleep.
- These population parameters will inform future research on optimal sleep patterns and their impact on child and parent well-being.
Objective:
To provide accurate population normative data documenting cross-sectional, age-specific sleep patterns in Australian children aged 0-9 years.
Design And Setting:
The first three waves of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, comprising two cohorts recruited in 2004 at ages 0-1 years (n=5107) and 4-5 years (n=4983), and assessed biennially.
Participants:
Children with analysable sleep data for at least one wave.
Measures:
At every wave, parents prospectively completed 24-h time-use diaries for a randomly selected week or weekend day. 'Sleeping, napping' was one of the 26 precoded activities recorded in 15-min time intervals.
Results:
From 0 to 9 years of age, 24-h sleep duration fell from a mean peak of 14 (SD 2.2) h at 4-6 months to 10 (SD 1.9) h at 9 years, mainly due to progressively later mean sleep onset time from 20:00 (SD 75 min) to 21:00 (SD 60 min) and declining length of day sleep from 3.0 (SD 1.7) h to 0.03 (SD 0.2) h. Number and duration of night wakings also fell. By primary school, wake and sleep onset times were markedly later on weekend days. The most striking feature of the centile charts is the huge variation at all ages in sleep duration, sleep onset time and, especially, wake time in this normal population.
Conclusions:
Parents and professionals can use these new centile charts to judge normalcy of children's sleep. In future research, these population parameters will now be used to empirically determine optimal child sleep patterns for child and parent outcomes like mental and physical health.
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