Short Sleep Duration: Children's Mental, Behavioral, and Developmental Disorders and Demographic, Neighborhood, and Family Context in a Nationally Representative Sample, 2016-2019

Introduction Many children and adolescents experience insufficient sleep, which poses risks for their short-and long-term health and development. This study examined the concurrent associations of con-textual factors, including child, demographic, neighborhood, and family factors, with short sleep duration.Methods We combined data on children aged 3 to 17 years from the 2016-2019 National Survey of Children's Health (N = 112,925) to examine the association of parent-reported child short sleep dura-tion (ages 3-5 y, <10 h; 6-12 y, <9 h; 13-17 y, <8 h) with mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders (MBDDs); selected phys-ical health conditions; and demographic, neighborhood, and fam-ily factors.Results Overall, 34.7% of children experienced short sleep duration. The prevalence was highest among children aged 6 to 12 years (37.5%); children from racial and ethnic minority groups, espe-cially non-Hispanic Black children (50.0%); children from low-income households (44.9%); children with an MBDD (39.6%); children experiencing negative neighborhood factors (poor condi-tions and lack of safety, support, and amenities, 36.5%); and fam-ily factors such as inconsistent bedtime (57.3%), poor parental mental (47.5%) and physical health (46.0%), and adverse child-hood experiences (44.1%). The associations between sleep and demographic, neighborhood, and family factors, and MBDD re-mained significant after controlling for all other factors.Conclusion This study identified several individual, family, and community factors that may contribute to children's short sleep duration and can be targeted to improve healthy development, particularly among children with an MBDD, from households with low so-cioeconomic status, or from racial and ethnic minority groups who are at increased risk for short sleep duration.

Automated summary

This study examined the associations between contextual factors and short sleep duration in children. It found that individual, family, and community factors may contribute to short sleep duration, especially among children with mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders, from low-income households, or from racial and ethnic minority groups.