THE INFLUENCE OF THE FAMILY ENVIRONMENT ON CHILDREN'S SLEEP DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR AND SUMMER

Introduction More than a third of US children do not receive adequate sleep. Earlier bedtimes, consistent bedtime routines, and good sleep hygiene help to support more adequate sleep. Our previous work has shown that during summer, 5-8-year-old children go to bed later and obtain less sleep compared to the school year. We hypothesized that school year-summer differences in the family environment would explain differences in children’s sleep timing during these periods. Methods During the school year and summer, 119 parents of 5–8-year-olds completed measures of child temperament, sleep hygiene, parenting practices, and parent stress and social support. Child sleep was measured for 8 days using wrist actigraphs. Sleep onset and offset were determined using the Sadeh algorithm and sleep diaries to determine sleep midpoint. Paired samples t-tests examined school year-summer differences in family environment variables and stepwise linear regression analyses were used to examine the effect of the family environment on sleep midpoint, controlling for age, gender, chronotype, and sleep duration. Results Compared to the school year, during summer parents reported less parent-child conflict before bed (t(117)=3.913, p<.001), less consistent bedtime routines (t(117)=4.808, p<.001), and average daily screen use (t(117)=-2.756, p=.007) and greater child surgency or impulsivity (t(108)=-2.960, p=.004. Overall, our model explained 48% of the variance in children’s sleep timing during the school year (p=<.001) and 45% during the summer (p=<.001). In the final model, greater caffeine intake (β=2.1, p=.033), later chronotype (β=0.4, p=<.001) and greater effortful control or self-regulatory skills (β=0.2, p=.047) predicted having a later sleep midpoint during the school year. During the summer, less consistent bedtime routines and later chronotype (β=0.3, p=.002) predicted having a later sleep midpoint (β=-0.2, p=.022). Conclusion The relaxed nature of the summer family environment likely contributes to decreased conflict over bedtime, increased child media use, and decreased bedtime routine consistency. However, only decreases in bedtime routine consistency contributed to later bedtimes during summer. Worryingly, 5-8-year-olds appear to be using caffeine during the school year contributing to later sleep timing. Addressing summer bedtime routines and children’s school-year caffeine intake are important targets for intervention to improve children’s sleep. Support (if any) Texas Children's Pediatric Pilot Award