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This page is being updated on a regular basis! Snoring in the first year of life
Snoring is considered a risk factor for breathing problems and other sleep-related problems in older children. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of snoring in infants and the factors associated with snoring. The study assessed snoring in 1800 infants using interviewer-administered questionnaire. The prevalence of snoring was 15.8% in the first 4 weeks of life and 26.1% in the past two weeks. Snoring in the past 2 weeks was associated with increasing age of the infant, male gender, maternal smoking, sleep position, number of respiratory infections and snoring in the first 4 wk of life. The authors concluded that snoring is common in infancy. The identified risk factors for snoring are probably causally related to snoring. Further studies are needed to establish whether snoring in infancy is associated with current or subsequent morbidity.
Strong links between sleep and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been demonstrated in older children. This study examined from a longitudinal perspective to what extent early sleep problems predict ADHD at later ages. The first of the study included screening of more than 2500 infants aged 6-18 months. A group of 27 infants were identified as suffering from severe and chronic sleep problems. A similar control group was used for comparisons. At the age of 5.5 y, seven of the children in the sleep problem group met the criteria for the diagnosis of ADHD based on an in-depth assessment by a multidisciplinary team. None of the control children qualified for the diagnosis. The authors concluded that infants who suffer from severe sleep problems are more likely to develop ADHD in later ages.
Co-sleeping (babies sleeping with their parents in the same bed) is a very controversial topic because of its alleged positive attributes and risks. The authors recorded sleep of 101 normal, full-term infants in the home for 24 hr periods when they were 5 weeks and 6 months old. Three groups of babies were compared: Short-term co-sleepers, long-term co-sleepers, and non-co-sleepers. Their sleep states and wakefulness were compared at the two ages and over age. At 5 weeks and 6 months, the long-term co-sleeping infants differed significantly from the non-co-sleepers on a number of measures: At 5 weeks. they showed more quiet sleep and longer bouts of quiet sleep; and at 6 months, they also showed less active sleep. fewer arousals in active sleep, and less wakefulness. Each of these differences indicates a markedly lower arousal level in the long-term co-sleeping infants. This sleep pattern has been repeatedly found to be an indicator of stress. The authors inferred that a major source of stress for these babies is the experience of sleep disturbance documented for infants when they were co-sleeping.
This study was aimed at obtaining objective data on infants' night waking behaviors and the development of self-soothing during the first year of life. The authors examined sleep and nighttime behavior in 80 infants in 1 of 4 age groups (3, 6, 9, or 12 months) for 4 nights using video recordings. Nighttime awakenings and parent-child interactions were analyzed. The findings indicated that most infants woke during the night at all ages observed. Younger infants tended to require parental intervention at night to return to sleep while older infants exhibited a greater ability to resume sleep after nighttime awakenings without parents' involvement (self-soothing). However, even in the 12-month-old group 50% of infants typically required parental intervention to get back to sleep after waking. Girls spend higher proportion of their sleep in quiet sleep and had longer periods of continuous uninterrupted sleep than boys. Boys were more likely to be removed from their cribs than girls. Another interesting finding reported by the authors was the striking night-to-night and week-to-week inconsistency they found in parent-infant interactions.
In a survey of 738 mothers of infants 6 to 12 months of age, Maternal well-being and infant sleep problems were assessed using standard questionnaires. Forty-six percent of the mothers reported their infant's sleep as a problem. These sleep problems included the infant sleeping in the parent's bed, being nursed to sleep, taking longer to fall asleep, waking more often and for longer periods overnight, and taking shorter naps. Sleep problems were associated with high depression scores. The authors concluded that maternal report of infant sleep problems and depression symptoms are common in middle-class Australian communities, and that there is a strong association between the two domains. Maternal report of good sleep quality attenuates this relationship.
It has previously been demonstrated in animals and humans that sleep is important for information processing, learning and memory. Researchers have also suggested that the fact that infants spend much more time in sleep than adults is related to the fact that sleep facilitates brain development that occurs mostly in the first 3 years of life. A recent study performed in kittens have shown that sleep indeed enhances the growth and development of nerve cell connections, a process called plasticity. These findings provide substantial evidence for the importance of sleep for brain development in infancy.
Snoring and noisy breathing during sleep are linked to moodiness in infants
Following earlier studies indicating that snoring is associated with behavior problems in older children, this study evaluated possible associations between snoring and/or noisy breathing in sleep and daytime behavior in 2-4-month-old infants. The sample included 200 healthy infants aged 2-4 months. The mothers completed questionnaires assessing infant temperament and snoring and breathing patterns during sleep. Five percent of the infants were described as habitual snorers, 24.0% were characterized as having other than snoring noisy breathing during sleep, and 6.5% habitually had both snoring and noisy breathing. Infants with snoring or noisy breathing were rated as being moodier during wakefulness. The author concluded that snoring and noisy breathing are common symptoms in young infants, and may be associated with specific behavioural disturbances. The author recommends investigating moody infants for possible breathing difficulties.
Teething is unlikely to disrupt sleep
Two recent studies have indicated that, contrary to many beliefs held by parents and professionals, the links between the emergence of teeth and significant physical symptoms are very weak. The researchers compared signs of fever, sleep disruptions, irritability and other symptoms on days close to teeth eruption (before and after) and on days remote from teeth eruption. The findings indicate that for most infants there are no links between the emergence of teeth and other behavioral or physical symptoms. In the minority of the infants tooth emergence was associated with some symptoms but these associations existed only for a brief period (4 days before teeth eruption, the day of eruption and 3 days after). In both studies, sleep disruptions were not associated with tooth emergence. The authors suggest that parents' tendencies to blame teething for physical and behavioral symptoms is often unwarranted. Physical symptoms and distress are likely the result of other factors.
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