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Babies need firm sleeping schedule

A researcher at Chang Gung Children's Hospital in Taoyuan has suggested that parents whose babies have sleep problems should help their children develop good sleeping habits and refrain from comforting babies or feeding them when they awake crying.

Assistant professor Chou Yi-hung (周怡宏) made the remarks while speaking of the conclusions on a survey on parent-reported sleep problems in infants and young children.

The children surveyed ranged in age from newborns to six months. The study was conducted from January 2004 to July 2005 through interviewing 506 mothers who had taken their children to the hospital's well-baby clinic.

The results were published in the January issue of Sleep and Biological Rhythm, the English-language journal of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research.

Chou concluded that sleep problems among infants and young children are very common in northern Taiwan.

He said his research team has found night waking and difficulty falling asleep are the two major sleep problems of children in this age group.

Excluding the disease factor, they found that nearly 40 percent of the children had problems with frequent night waking, while more than 70 percent took 30 minutes or longer to fall asleep. In addition, illness interfering with sleep at night was observed in 35 percent of the children.

The survey found that the most common problems were with the going-to-bed schedule, night waking and daytime sleepiness.

Chou suggested that parents let their babies sleep in their own beds and set fixed sleep times to create a better environment for their children to fall asleep.
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