Shorter night‐time sleep duration and later sleep timing from infancy to adolescence

Background: Here, we (a) examined the trajectories of night‐time sleep duration, bedtime and midpoint of night‐time sleep (MPS) from infancy to adolescence, and (b) explored perinatal risk factors for persistent poor sleep health.

Methods: This study used data from 12,962 participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Parent or self‐reported night‐time sleep duration, bedtime and wake‐up time were collected from questionnaires at 6, 18 and 30 months, and at 3.5, 4–5, 5–6, 6–7, 9, 11 and 15–16 years. Child's sex, birth weight, gestational age, health and temperament, together with mother's family adversity index (FAI), age at birth, prenatal socioeconomic status and postnatal anxiety and depression, were included as risk factors for persistent poor sleep health. Latent class growth analyses were applied first to detect trajectories of night‐time sleep duration, bedtime and MPS, and we then applied logistic regressions for the longitudinal associations between risk factors and persistent poor sleep health domains.

Results: We obtained four trajectories for each of the three sleep domains. In particular, we identified a trajectory characterized by persistent shorter sleep, a trajectory of persistent later bedtime and a trajectory of persistent later MPS. Two risk factors were associated with the three poor sleep health domains: higher FAI with increased risk of persistent shorter sleep (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.11–1.30, p < .001), persistent later bedtime (OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.19–1.39, p < .001) and persistent later MPS (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.22–1.38, p < .001); and higher maternal socioeconomic status with reduced risk of persistent shorter sleep (OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.98–1.00, p = .048), persistent later bedtime (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.97–0.99, p < .001) and persistent later MPS (OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.98–0.99, p < .001).

Conclusions: We detected trajectories of persistent poor sleep health (i.e. shorter sleep duration, later bedtime and later MPS) from infancy to adolescence, and specific perinatal risk factors linked to persistent poor sleep health domains.