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. 2023 May-Jun:86:101530.
doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2023.101530. Epub 2023 Mar 15.

Socioeconomic Disparities, Nighttime Bedroom Temperature, and Children's Sleep

Ben Hinnant  1 , Joseph A Buckhalt  1 , Emily F Brigham  1 , Brian T Gillis  1 , Mona El-Sheikh  1
Affiliations

Socioeconomic Disparities, Nighttime Bedroom Temperature, and Children's Sleep

Ben Hinnant et al. J Appl Dev Psychol. 2023 May-Jun.

Abstract

We investigated associations between family income-to-needs, nighttime bedroom temperature (NBT), and children's sleep. Using a sample of 46 children (M age = 11.5), we recorded NBT and objective sleep parameters via actigraphy nightly for one week to evaluate within- (night-to-night) and between-person associations. We found consistent evidence for a curvilinear association between NBT and sleep variables at the between-person level, indicating that children who slept in rooms that were "too hot" or "too cold" experienced poorer sleep. Moreover, children in lower income-to-needs families had more extreme NBTs. There was some evidence that family income-to-needs is indirectly related to sleep via NBT, but with interpretational caveats. These findings point to NBT as a potentially modifiable variable, which has implications for practical applications to mitigate effects of socioeconomic disparities on children's sleep.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Nonlinear association between nighttime bedroom temperature and sleep efficiency at the between-person level
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Residual NBT scores across levels of family income-to-needs
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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