Why do some young children sleep through the night and others don't? There's no one simple answer. Surveys of parents have found one-third of children six months old to five years old have difficulties going to bed, falling asleep, or sleeping through the night. One factor that influences sleeping through the night is how parents react when their children awaken.
The sleeping patterns of 1741 children from Quebec were analyzed with special attention paid to the number of consecutive hours they slept at night at ages five, seventeen, and twenty-nine months.
At five months of age, nearly a quarter of the children didn't sleep six consecutive hours. A third of these children were still not sleeping six consecutive hours when 29 months old. The most frequent factor associated with this pattern was feeding the five-month-olds when they awoke in the middle of the night. The factor most commonly associated with 17- and 29-month olds who didn't sleep at least six consecutive hours was parental presence until the child fell asleep.
Children develop their sleep patterns fairly early in life and these patterns may have long-lasting effects. The authors of this study conclude, "Parental behaviors at bedtime and in response to nocturnal awakening are highly associated with the child's sleep consolidation. The effects are probably bidirectional [the child's sleeping patterns affect the parents and the parents affect the child's sleeping patterns] and probably create a long-term problem." Proper parental behaviors ‚ not feeding your children who awaken at night and letting older children fall asleep without mom or dad in the bedroom ‚ will help improve these poor sleep habits.
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 3/05
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