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June 11, 2007Healthy Children of a Lower Socioeconomic Class Sleep Worse than those of Middle Class |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Children from a lower socioeconomic environment have worse sleeping patterns than children from middle class status. Excessive daytime sleepiness due to poor sleep the night before may have a negative impact on a child's academic performance and also put them at risk for developing health problems, according to a research abstract that will be presented Monday at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS). The parents were asked to fill out a standardized 35-item Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire, which examines various sleeping behaviors including bedtime resistance, sleep onset delay, sleep duration, sleep anxiety, night awakenings, parasomnias, sleep disordered breathing and daytime sleepiness. Each category is scored, with higher scores indicating poorer sleeping patterns. "This study highlights the importance of screening for sleeping problems in children from an inner city population," said Dr. Kothare. "Many of these problems are under-recognized, and may impact the health and performance of these children at school. The annual SLEEP meeting brings together an international body of 5,000 leading researchers and clinicians in the field of sleep medicine to present and discuss new findings and medical developments related to sleep and sleep disorders.
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