Anxiety in Children May Be Linked to Sleep Issues

This article shows a link between childhood anxiety and sleeping problems in children.

Does your child toss and turn at night? Does your child regularly wake up tired and unrefreshed? According to research, a small percentage of children who have sleep problems may be at risk of more serious emotional disorders, including anxiety and depression.

The study, authored by Flavia Giannotti, M.D., of Center of Pediatric Sleep Disorders at the University of Rome La Sapienza in Italy, was conducted on 122 children between 7 and 11 years of age, who had a major depressive disorder. All patients underwent a systematic psychiatric, cognitive and sleep evaluation and all children were medication-free. Depressed children, as well as those presenting both depression and an anxious disorder, entered the study, and their results were compared to those of 200 healthy peers.

According to the results, 82 percent of the depressed children reported problems sleeping, compared to five percent in the control group. In the group of children who suffered from both depression and anxiety, 42 percent showed a significantly higher frequency of sleep-onset insomnia, compared to 29 percent in the depression-only group. They also scored significantly higher on the “bedtime difficulties,” “sleep anxiety,” and “sleep duration” portions of the questionnaire.

Gianotti states, “Sleep problems are very common in typically developing children. Even though they are more frequent in toddlers and preschoolers, they affect also school-aged children. What was most interesting about this study was the finding that certain types of comorbid [e.g. anxiety and depression] conditions might be especially disruptive on sleep. Therefore, in childhood, considerable attention needs to be paid to the interrelation between sleep patterns and emotional disorders.”

Experts recommend that school-aged children get between 10-11 hours of sleep every night. If your child fails to get a sufficient amount of sleep of if your child is consistently tired or drowsy in the morning, he or she may have developmental or behavioral problems, like anxiety or depression.

“To ensure the most effective care, parents of sleep-disturbed children are advised to first consult with the child’s pediatrician, who may issue a referral to a sleep specialist for comprehensive testing and treatment,” Dr. Giannotti advised.

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