Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
Pediatric Clinics, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.
J Sleep Res. 2018 Oct;27(5):e12696. doi: 10.1111/jsr.12696. Epub 2018 May 2.
Sleep problems in young children are among the most common concerns reported to paediatricians. Sleep is thought to have important regulatory functions, and sleep difficulties in early childhood are linked to several psychosocial and physiological problems. Moreover, several prenatal factors have been found to influence infants' sleep. Among them, most of the studies have been focused on maternal prenatal depression and/or anxiety as potential risk factors for sleep problems in childhood, whereas other relevant psychological factors during pregnancy have not received as much attention. Therefore, we aimed to examine the effect of several psychiatric maternal risk factors during pregnancy (i.e. symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia, alcohol use, seasonality, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and/or stressful life events) on the onset of some sleep problems related to sleep quality and sleep practices in 3-month-old infants. We examined 1,221 cases from a population-based birth cohort, with subjective measures during pregnancy in mothers, and at 3 months after birth in the infants. The findings showed that all the maternal risk factors during pregnancy, except for symptoms of alcoholism and sleepiness, were related to sleep difficulties in infants. Interestingly, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder symptomatology in mothers during pregnancy was the only variable that predicted more than two sleeping difficulties (i.e. long sleep-onset latency, co-sleeping with parents and irregular sleeping routines) at 3 months old. Our results highlight the relevance of maternal risk factors during pregnancy, and not only prenatal depression and/or anxiety, as variables to be considered when examining sleep difficulties in infants.
儿童期睡眠问题是儿科医生最常报告的问题之一。人们认为睡眠具有重要的调节功能，幼儿期的睡眠困难与许多心理社会和生理问题有关。此外，已经发现一些产前因素会影响婴儿的睡眠。在这些因素中，大多数研究都集中在母亲产前抑郁和/或焦虑作为儿童期睡眠问题的潜在危险因素上，而怀孕期间其他相关的心理因素则没有得到太多关注。因此，我们旨在研究怀孕期间几种精神科母体危险因素（即焦虑、抑郁、失眠、饮酒、季节性、注意力缺陷多动障碍和/或生活压力事件）对 3 个月大婴儿睡眠质量和睡眠习惯相关的一些睡眠问题的影响。我们对来自基于人群的出生队列的 1221 例病例进行了检查，这些病例在母亲怀孕期间和婴儿出生后 3 个月内都有主观测量。研究结果表明，除了酗酒和嗜睡症状外，母亲怀孕期间的所有风险因素都与婴儿的睡眠困难有关。有趣的是，母亲在怀孕期间的注意力缺陷多动障碍症状是唯一可以预测 3 个月大时出现超过两种睡眠困难（即入睡潜伏期长、与父母同睡和睡眠规律不规律）的变量。我们的研究结果强调了母体怀孕期间的危险因素的相关性，并且不仅是产前抑郁和/或焦虑，而是在检查婴儿睡眠困难时应考虑的变量。
