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Child Eveningness as a Predictor of Parental Sleep

Hanni Rönnlund1,2, Marko Elovainio3,4, Irina Virtanen5,6

  • 1Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland.

Children (Basel, Switzerland)
|December 23, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Children with evening sleep patterns may negatively impact parental sleep quality. Encouraging earlier routines for evening-type children can help improve parental sleep outcomes.

Area of Science:

  • Chronobiology
  • Pediatric Sleep Medicine
  • Parental Health

Background:

  • Child eveningness is linked to adverse outcomes.
  • The impact of child eveningness on parental sleep quality requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if child eveningness is a risk factor for parental sleep quality over time.
  • To analyze the longitudinal relationship between children's chronotypes and parental sleep issues.

Main Methods:

  • 146 children underwent actigraphy sleep recordings twice, one year apart.
  • Parents completed questionnaires on child chronotype, their own morningness-eveningness preference, and sleep quality (Jenkins Sleep Scale).
  • Linear regression analyses were used to assess associations.

Main Results:

  • Parental sleep problems at baseline predicted problems at follow-up.
  • Children with morning chronotypes reduced the risk of parental sleep problems compared to evening types.
  • Parents of evening-type children reported more sleep problems at follow-up than parents of morning-type children.

Conclusions:

  • Child eveningness is associated with increased parental sleep problems.
  • Steering evening-type children towards earlier daily routines may benefit parental sleep quality.
  • Interventions targeting child chronotypes could improve family sleep health.

Keywords:
childchronotypeeveningnessmorningnessparentparental sleepsleep

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