El-Sheikh Mona, Buckhalt Joseph A, Keller Peggy S, Granger Douglas A
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Alabama 36849, USA.
Health Psychol. 2008 Jan;27(1):26-33. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.27.1.26.
The purpose of this study was to determine possible relations between the quality and amount of children's sleep and cortisol in healthy children.
Children's sleep was monitored with actigraphs for 7 nights. Children came to the laboratory to provide saliva samples, which were used to assess cortisol. Children reported on their sleepiness and sleep/wake problems. Sixty-four healthy children participated (M = 8.75 years; SD = .55).
Self-reported sleepiness and sleep/wake problems, actigraphy-measured total sleep minutes, sleep efficiency, minutes awake after sleep onset, and sleep activity, and afternoon cortisol levels.
After controlling for demographic variables and child characteristics, higher levels of cortisol were related to increased subjective sleep problems and objective measures of shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality.
These findings are of importance for understanding critical facets of children's health and well-being, and are noteworthy given the high prevalence of sleep disruptions in otherwise normally developing children in the United States.
本研究旨在确定健康儿童睡眠质量和睡眠时间与皮质醇之间的可能关系。
使用活动记录仪对儿童的睡眠进行了7个晚上的监测。儿童前往实验室提供唾液样本，用于评估皮质醇。儿童报告了他们的困倦程度以及睡眠/觉醒问题。64名健康儿童参与了研究（平均年龄M = 8.75岁；标准差SD = 0.55）。
自我报告的困倦程度和睡眠/觉醒问题、活动记录仪测量的总睡眠时间、睡眠效率、入睡后清醒时间、睡眠活动以及下午皮质醇水平。
在控制了人口统计学变量和儿童特征后，较高的皮质醇水平与主观睡眠问题增加以及睡眠时间缩短和睡眠质量较差的客观指标有关。
这些发现对于理解儿童健康和幸福的关键方面具有重要意义，并且鉴于美国正常发育儿童中睡眠中断的高发生率，值得关注。
