Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan;24(1):62-72.
doi: 10.1007/s10995-019-02843-z.

Association of Maternal Depression and Anxiety Symptoms with Sleep Duration in Children at Preschool Age

Lidiane Ferreira Schultz  1 , Caroline Kroll  1 , Bruna Constantino  1 , Melody Cristina Mansani Carraro Trombelli  2 , Renatha El Rafihi-Ferreira  3 , Marco F Mastroeni  4
Affiliations

Association of Maternal Depression and Anxiety Symptoms with Sleep Duration in Children at Preschool Age

Lidiane Ferreira Schultz et al. Matern Child Health J. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of maternal depression and anxiety symptoms on daily sleep duration in 4-5-year-old children.

Methods: Data were obtained from the PREDI Study, a larger cohort study conducted in Brazil. The current study is a cross-sectional study carried out in the homes of the participants between July 2016 and August 2017. The participants were submitted to anthropometric assessment and demographic, socioeconomic and psychological data were obtained. Total sleep time was self-reported by the women and classified as ≥ 10 or < 10 h of sleep/day. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory, respectively.

Results: Of the 216 children included in the study, 77.3% and 22.7% had ≥ 10 and < 10 h of sleep/day, respectively. Regarding the women, 20.0% and 19.5% had moderate/severe depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively. Moderate/severe symptoms of maternal depression were associated with < 10 h of sleep/day (p = 0.034). Unadjusted analysis showed that children whose mothers had moderate/severe depression symptoms were significantly more likely to sleep < 10 h/day at 4-5 years of age than those whose mothers had minimal/mild depression symptoms (OR 2.38, p = 0.037). This association continued to be significant and increased to an OR of 3.99 (p = 0.006) after adjusting for potential confounders.

Conclusions for practice: Our study showed that sleeping less than 10 h/day at preschool age was associated with moderate/severe maternal depression symptoms. These results are important from a public health perspective since strategies designed to treat depression in women with school-age children may help improve their child's sleep quality and, consequently, his cognitive performance and related behavioral and emotional problems in the future.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Preschool age; Preschoolers; Sleep deprivation.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Sleep Med Rev. 2016 Oct;29:1-14 - PubMed
    1. Pediatrics. 2008 Sep;122(3):e621-7 - PubMed
    1. Early Hum Dev. 2017 Dec;115:23-31 - PubMed
    1. Ital J Pediatr. 2017 Jan 13;43(1):7 - PubMed
    1. Matern Child Health J. 2016 Jul;20(7):1405-14 - PubMed

MeSH terms