Children born extremely preterm had different sleeping habits at 11 years of age and more childhood sleep problems than term-born children

Abstract

Aim: This study explored whether extremely preterm (EPT) children had different sleep characteristics in childhood than children born at term and how neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) affected sleep in children born EPT.

Methods: A Norwegian national cohort of 231 children born EPT from 1999 to 2000 and separate study data on 556 children born at term in 2001 were compared. Parental questionnaires mapped the children's current sleep habits at 11 years of age, namely the prevalence of sleep problems throughout childhood until this age and five categories of sleep problems. In addition, the EPT children were clinically assessed at five years of age.

Results: The EPT children had different sleep habits than the controls, for example they went to bed earlier. EPT children had a higher prevalence of sleep problems than the controls throughout childhood (26% versus 14%, p < 0.001) and this was also higher for the 93 EPT children with no NDD (20%) than for the controls (14%) and increased with increasing NDD to 67% (p = 0.015) for the six children with severe NDD.

Conclusion: EPT children had different sleep habits to term-born controls at 11 years of age, including those with no NDD. The prevalence of sleep problems increased with increasing NDD.

Keywords: Extremely premature; Gestational age; Neurodevelopment disorders; Sleep characteristics; Sleep problems.