What daily factors affect the sleep habits of Japanese toddlers?
- PMID: 36789883
- PMCID: PMC10235708
- DOI: 10.5664/jcsm.10508
What daily factors affect the sleep habits of Japanese toddlers?
Abstract
Study objectives: Good sleep, especially during early childhood, is important for development. In Japan, the mean nocturnal sleep duration of toddlers is < 10 hours, and even if toddlers slept for > 11 hours/day, as recommended by the National Sleep Foundation, some of them showed late bedtime and late wake-up time or took long naps. Therefore, we provisionally assumed the minimal sleep conditions for Japanese toddlers, named Nenne-criteria, such as bedtime before 10:00 pm, nocturnal sleep duration of ≥ 9 hours, and < 1 average time of awakening after sleep onset, and investigated the important factors for good sleep.
Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from online surveys describing the sleep-related behaviors of 2,124 toddlers and their caregivers. We compared the daily schedules that affect sleep between the Nenne-criteria-meet group and the not-meet group.
Results: The Nenne-criteria-meet group showed better daytime behaviors than the not-meet group. Structural equation modeling on daily schedules revealed that, to increase sleep pressure at the appropriate time, it is important to restrict media viewing, play outdoors in the morning, have an early nap ending time, avoid hyperarousal-inducing behaviors before bedtime, maintain daily schedules regularly, and decrease social jetlag.
Conclusions: The Nenne-criteria are useful for screening Japanese toddlers who require intervention for sleep hygiene. To improve toddlers' sleep, it is important not only to guide the ideal bedtime but also to provide tips for improving daily schedules and to avoid suboptimal sleep-related behaviors.
Citation: Murata E, Yoshizaki A, Fujisawa TX, Tachibana M, Taniike M, Mohri I. What daily factors affect the sleep habits of Japanese toddlers? J Clin Sleep Med. 2023;19(6):1089-1101.
Keywords: daily schedule; daytime behavior; sleep habits; sleep hygiene; sleep pressure; toddler.
© 2023 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Conflict of interest statement
All authors approved the manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work. Work for this study was performed at the Department of Child Development, United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. This work was supported in part by research grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan (16H03273 to M. Taniike, 17K17855 to A.Y., 18K15669 to E.M., and 22K15898 to E.M.); the Center of Innovation Program from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japan (Center of Innovation [COI]: grant number JPMJCE1310 to M. Taniike); the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan (20008 to M. Tachibana). The authors report no conflicts of interest.
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