What is the Sleep Pattern of Infants and Toddlers in the Iranian Population? An Epidemiological Study

Objective  To identify sleep patterns and sleep behaviors in a group of infants and toddlers (0 to 36 months) in Iran. Methods  Parents and caregivers of 602 infants and toddlers in Iran completed a Persian translation of the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire. To assess the differences among the age groups, non-parametric statistical approaches such as the Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests were employed. Results  The infants and toddlers went to bed relatively late (22:30), and the median night awakening was 2 times (20 min). They most likely slept in the same room with their parents (55.5%), and commonly in the same bed (18.9%). They slept a median of 11.50 hours per day. A significant percentage of the parents felt that their child had moderate or severe sleep problems (22.4%). These children's sleep patterns had significant developmental changes, including decreased daytime sleep, reduced overall sleep, and increased sleep consolidation (reduced number and duration of night awakenings and increased overall sleep duration). The parents commonly used holding-and-rocking and bottle/breastfeeding to initiate infants' sleep and bottle/breastfeeding to resume their infants' sleep. Discussion  These findings provide reference data for professionals to assess sleep in children under 3 years of age and also supply knowledge about common parenting practices related to a child's sleep. Cross-cultural comparisons using the findings can offer new insights into the practices and behaviors of parents concerning infant and toddler sleep.