(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A nightcap while you’re pregnant may disturb your
child’s sleep later on. A new study found alcohol consumption during pregnancy
and small body size at birth predict poorer sleep and higher risk of sleep
disturbances in 8-year-old children born at term.
The importance of these findings cannot be underestimated, experts say, as poor
sleep and sleep disturbances in children are associated with obesity, depressive
symptoms, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and poor neurobehavioral
functioning.
According to principal investigator Katri Räikkönen, PhD, in the department of
psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, even low levels of weekly
prenatal exposure to alcohol have adverse effects on sleep quantity and quality
during childhood.
Results indicate that children exposed prenatally to alcohol were 2.5 times more
likely to have short sleep duration and 3.6 times more likely to have low sleep
efficiency. Smaller body size at birth also was associated with poorer sleep and
with a higher risk for clinically significant sleep disturbances among children
born at term. In addition, children with short sleep duration were more likely
to have been born via Caesarean section than were children who slept longer.
"The results were in accordance with the fetal origins of health and disease
hypothesis and the many studies that have shown that adverse fetal environment
may have lifelong influences on health and behavior," Räikkönen is quoted as
saying. "However, this is among the few studies that have reported associations
between birth variables and sleep quality and quantity among an otherwise
healthy population of children."
The epidemiologic cohort study obtained data from 289 children born at term
(from 37 to 42 weeks of gestation) between March and November 1998. Sleep
duration and sleep efficiency (actual sleep time divided by the time in bed)
were measured objectively by actigraphy at 8 years of age for an average of 7.1
days. Parents completed the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children to report sleep
problems and sleep disorder symptoms such as bedtime resistance and sleep
disordered breathing.
The results demonstrated that among children born healthy and at full-term, a
linear relationship exists between smaller body size at birth and poorer sleep
quality eight years from birth.
SOURCE: SLEEP, August 1, 2009
