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Children’s Sleep and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The COVID-19 pandemic and protracted home confinement required adjustments to schedules and routines generating concern about children’s sleep. This review describes general considerations regarding children’s sleep, changes and disturbances in their sleep during the pandemic, and the association of sleep measures with health and psychological outcomes in general and in the context of the pandemic.

Recent Findings

A number of studies found an increase in the duration of children’s sleep with later bedtimes and waketimes for some children. The research also documented sleep disturbances and associations between children’s sleep and psychological outcomes.

Summary

The extent to which increased sleep duration and changed sleep behaviors translated into improved sleep quality and/or a change in sleep disturbances remains unclear. This review suggests the importance of considering children’s sleep in other mass trauma situations including, for example, natural and man-made disasters, as well as pandemics.

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Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank Dr. Milangel Concepcion for taking the time to review this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 920 Stanton L. Young Boulevard, WP 3217, P.O. Box 26901, Oklahoma City, OK, 73126-0901, USA

    Betty Pfefferbaum

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, c/o 15509 Claremont Blvd, Edmond, OK, 73013, USA

    Phebe Tucker

  3. Department of Psychiatry, HCA Florida West Hospital, 8383 N. Davis Highway, Pensacola, FL, 32514, USA

    Vijayabharathi Ekambaram

  4. University of Oklahoma, 920 Stanton L. Young Boulevard, WP 3217, P.O. Box 26901, Oklahoma City, OK, 73126-0901, USA

    Richard L. Van Horn

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  1. Betty Pfefferbaum
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Pfefferbaum, B., Tucker, P., Ekambaram, V. et al. Children’s Sleep and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Curr Psychiatry Rep 25, 847–856 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-023-01475-z

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