Selected Sleep Disturbances in School Children Reported by Parents: Prevalence, Interrelationships, Behavioral Correlates and Parental Attributions

Abstract

Epidemiological, behavioral and etiological variables related to sleep disturbances were investigated in a survey of 1695 children in Grades 1 to 12 from 11 randomly selected schools. Sleep-walking, nightmares and sleep-talking were strongly associated with each other as well as to a family history of sleep-walking. Enuresis, however, was not related to the other sleep variables. Socioeconomic status of father was weakly related to enuresis and sleep-talking but not to sleep-walking or nightmares. Gender was not related to any of the sleep disturbances. The behavioral variables, physical activity, attention, emotional excitability, and feelings easily hurt showed a small association with the sleep disturbances. Parents most frequently attributed causes of sleep-walking and nightmares to over-tiredness and over-excitement. As well, parents' comments indicated that they tend to associate specific events such as illness or more often, frightening TV content with nightmares, but not sleepwalking.