Child Sleep Problems May Begin in the Womb

A study in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep examined prenatal factors that are related to sleep problems in children.

The study involved 289 children born in Finland in 1998; each child was born at term from 37 to 42 weeks of gestation. Sleep was measured by actigraphy for one week when the children were 8 years of age. Parents reported sleep problems and sleep disorder symptoms.

Results link prenatal alcohol exposure to an increased risk of sleep problems in childhood.

Alcohol "exposure" was defined as a mother drinking more than one alcoholic beverage per week during pregnancy.

Children exposed to alcohol before birth were 2.5 times more likely to have a “short” sleep duration of 7.7 hours or less per night. The AASM reports that at 8 years of age children need about nine to 10 hours of nightly sleep.

Children also were 3.6 times more likely to have a low “sleep efficiency” of 77.2 percent or less if they were exposed to alcohol in the womb; sleep efficiency indicates how much of their time in bed was spent sleeping.

“Adverse fetal environment may have lifelong influences on health and behavior,” principal investigator Katri Räikkönen, PhD, told the AASM.

The CDC reports that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause a baby to be born with birth defects. About 1 in 12 pregnant women in the U.S. reports alcohol use.

Size at birth also was related to childhood sleep problems; lower weight and shorter length were associated with lower sleep efficiency. The authors report that small body size at birth may reflect disturbances in the fetal environment.

One finding surprised the authors: There was no link between prenatal tobacco exposure and sleep at 8 years of age.

Learn more about sleep and pregnancy on SleepEducation.com.

Sleep to Keep from Catching a Cold

It turns out that your mother was right all along. Getting more sleep can help you avoid catching a cold.

A new study shows that sleeping less than seven hours per night may make you three times more likely to develop a cold. There also was a link to “sleep efficiency.”

This is the percentage of time in bed that you are asleep. A high efficiency means that almost all your time in bed was spent sleeping. A low efficiency means that you were awake for much of your time in bed. Maybe you had trouble falling asleep. Or you woke up in the middle of the night and struggled to return to sleep.

To find your sleep efficiency, divide your total sleep time by your time in bed. For example, maybe you slept for 6.5 hours of the seven hours you spent in bed. This would give you a sleep efficiency of 93%.

The study found that those with an average sleep efficiency of less than 92% were 5.5 times more likely to develop a cold. Results remained significant after controlling for other factors.

The study involved 153 healthy men and women. They were between 21 and 55 years of age. For 14 days they reported their sleep duration and sleep efficiency from the previous night.

Then they were given nasal drops containing a rhinovirus. Their symptoms were monitored for five days while they were kept in isolation.

You can improve your sleep efficiency by following the tips of good sleep hygiene. Seek help at a sleep center if you have an ongoing problem that keeps you from sleeping well.

Now if only someone would do a study to see if Mom was right about chicken soup. Oh wait – it’s already been done.