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Behavioral Profiles Associated with Objective Sleep Duration in Young Children with Insomnia Symptoms

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Abstract

Based on previous studies reporting on the association of objective sleep duration and physiologic changes (i.e., increased cortisol) in children, we examined the role of objective sleep duration on differentiating behavioral profiles in children with insomnia symptoms. Seven hundred children (ages 5–12, 47.8% male) from the Penn State Child Cohort underwent a nine-hour polysomnography and parent completed Pediatric Behavior Scale. Insomnia symptoms were defined as parent report of difficulty falling and/or staying asleep, sleep disordered breathing as an AHI of ≥1, and objective short sleep duration as a total sleep time < 7.7 h. Children with insomnia symptoms demonstrated more overall behavioral problems than controls. Significant interactions between insomnia symptoms and objective sleep duration on scores of externalizing behaviors, mood variability and school problems were found. Profile analyses showed that children with insomnia symptoms and normal sleep duration were associated with clinically elevated externalizing behaviors, inattention, mood variability, and school problems, while children with insomnia and short sleep duration were associated with an overall elevated profile in which internalizing behaviors were more prominent. Childhood insomnia symptoms are associated with a wide array of behavioral problems, for which objective sleep duration is useful in differentiating behavioral profiles. Children with insomnia symptoms and normal sleep duration had a behavioral profile consistent with limit-setting and rule-breaking behaviors, while children with insomnia symptoms and short sleep duration had a behavioral profile more consistent with internalizing behaviors resembling that of psychophysiological disorders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sleep Research and Treatment Center, Department of Psychiatry, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA

    Susan L. Calhoun, Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, Alexandros N. Vgontzas & Edward O. Bixler

  2. Department of Psychiatry H073, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, P.O. Box 850, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Susan D. Mayes

  3. Department of Public Health Sciences, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA

    Duanping Liao

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  1. Susan L. Calhoun
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  2. Julio Fernandez-Mendoza
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  3. Alexandros N. Vgontzas
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  4. Susan D. Mayes
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  6. Edward O. Bixler
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Correspondence to Susan L. Calhoun.

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The authors report no financial or other relationship relevant to the subject of this article.

Sources of Supports

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01 HL063772, M01 RR010732, and C06 RR016499.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Calhoun, S.L., Fernandez-Mendoza, J., Vgontzas, A.N. et al. Behavioral Profiles Associated with Objective Sleep Duration in Young Children with Insomnia Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45, 337–344 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0166-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0166-4

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