Children with Sleep Disorders Can Impair Parent’s Functioning

Parents of children with sleep problems are more likely to have sleep-related problems themselves, including more daytime sleepiness, according to a new study by researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center and Brown Medical School.

“While most parents can testify that having a child with sleeping problems affects their own sleep, few scientific studies have looked at the relationship between children’s and parents’ sleep,” says lead author Julie Boergers, PhD, with the Bradley Hasbro Children’s Research Center and Brown Medical School, and co-director of the Pediatric Sleep Disorders Clinic of Hasbro Children’s Hospital.

The authors studied 107 families seeking treatment for their children aged 2 to 12 at a pediatric sleep disorders clinic, and found a link between children’s and parents’ sleep problems.

For both parents, having a child with more than one sleep disorder was associated with greater parental daytime sleepiness. Children in the study had a broad range of sleep problems, including obstructive sleep apnea, sleep terrors, insomnia [Insomnia Treatment], and bedtime refusal.