Associations between gestational age and childhood sleep: a national retrospective cohort study

It is well established that both sleep quality and quantity are essential for normal brain development throughout childhood, particularly for cognitive functions [1]. However, sleep problems are relatively common among young children, and according to parent reports, it has been suggested that approximately 20–30% of young children have various sleep problems [2]. In preterm infants younger than 1 year old, sleep problems are thought to be even more prevalent [3, 4].

However, the exact relationship between preterm birth and sleep problems beyond infancy is not yet clear. Studies have suggested that school-aged preterm children had different sleep patterns compared to full-term children, such as having earlier bedtimes and earlier wake times [5‐7], but had no difference in overall sleep duration [6, 7]. Preterm children have been reported to have lower sleep quality, including more nocturnal awakenings [8, 9], and consistent with this more “shallow” and less “deep” non-rapid eye movement sleep [9]. It has been suggested that irreversible adverse factors related to preterm birth, such as brain injury, altered brain maturation, and respiratory problems may precipitate poor sleep. Furthermore, a range of parental factors related to preterm childcaring may also play a role. For example, increased parental concern about preterm children may be linked to earlier bedtimes, which may contribute to the different sleep outcomes of preterm children beyond infancy [10]. However, given the very limited studies available in the literature, variation in the degrees of prematurity and sample size makes it difficult to draw any clear conclusions about the sleep outcomes of preterm children beyond infancy.

Moreover, to our knowledge, no study has been conducted to date on the sleep outcomes of post-term-born children (>41 weeks). Studies have reported that post-term birth can negatively affect children’s short-term and long-term health outcomes [11‐15]. Post-term birth can increase the risk of neonatal encephalopathy and death during the first year of life [16]. It has also been reported that, with respect to longer-term effects, post-term birth increases the risks of cognitive impairments, severe mental disorders, neuropsychological disorders, and other behavioural and emotional problems in early childhood [17‐20]. Post-term delivery often has a higher risk for perinatal problems such as prolonged labour that can cause a perinatal lack of oxygen [21] and uteroplacental insufficiency [15]. These risk factors may predispose infants to abnormal brain development and respiratory problems [22] which may lead in turn to sleep problems in post-term children.

Therefore, in the current study, we used a retrospective cohort study design to systematically examine the effect of gestational age on sleep outcomes with a large sample of urban Chinese children. We hypothesized that compared with full-term children (39–40 weeks), that born very-preterm (<31 weeks), moderate-preterm (32–33 weeks), late-preterm (34–36 weeks), early-term (37–38 weeks) and post-term (>41 weeks) all had a higher incidence of sleep disorders and altered sleep outcomes.

The current population-based prospective cohort study was the first to investigate the association between gestational age across the full range of sleep outcomes in preschoolers. Our study demonstrated that 3–5-year-old children born very-preterm (<31 weeks), moderate-preterm (32–33 weeks), late-preterm (34–36 weeks), early-term (37–38 weeks) and post-term (>41 weeks) were more likely to have sleep problems including having shorter daily sleep hours and a higher odds of sleep disorders, compared to their full-term-born peers, as reported by their parents. Moreover, preterm and post-term children have different sleep profiles as suggested by the different subscales of the CSHQ.

In the present study, a prevalence of sleep disorders was reported with a nationally representative sample in China. Sleep disorder defined with a CSHQ score higher than 41 was found to be prevalent in up to 81.27% of the very-preterm group, 80.67% of the moderate-preterm group, 78.62% of the late-preterm group, 76.58% of the early-term group, 76.02% of the full-term group and 79.17% of the post-term group. The remarkably high incidence of CHSQ-indicated sleep disorders is consistent with previous studies which also reported a very high prevalence of sleep disorders measured by the CSHQ in Chinese [41‐44] and Japanese preschoolers [41], compared to a prevalence of sleep disorders reported in other populations 20–30% in the western population [2, 45]. Our results suggest the cultural features in sleep behaviours of children, and a local standard is required when using the CSHQ to define sleep disorders in children in East Asian countries.

In the present study, we found that sleep disorder as defined by CSHQ scores was significantly higher in all preterm groups compared with the full-term group. Our findings were consistent with previous work which also found that preterm children were more likely to have adverse sleep outcomes compared with full-term children even beyond infancy. The association between preterm birth and sleep problems in children beyond infancy have been reported by studies in both preschool ages [46‐48] and school ages [10], and our results further suggest that preterm-born preschoolers, especially very-preterm (<31 weeks), were more likely to have sleep disorder consistently across our age range from 3 to 5 years old. Moreover, when we compared individual sleep subscales in the CSHQ, including Bedtime Resistance, Sleep Onset Delay, Sleep Duration, Sleep Anxiety, Night Wakings, Parasomnias, Sleep Disordered Breathing and Daytime Sleepiness, a significant difference between the very-preterm/moderate-preterm and full-term groups was found in all subscales. The preterm groups also showed significantly shorter daily sleep hours compared to full-term children. These results suggest that preterm children may have a global sleep problem. The results are different from a previous study that found preterm preschoolers had higher total scores in the CSHQ but not on any of the subscales [47], which may be associated with their small sample sizes (137 preterms vs. 145 full-term children aged 4–6 years old). As demonstrated by previous studies, circadian rhythms of the foetus are developing in the second trimester and mature in the third trimester [49, 50]. The cycles of foetal activity were reported to show a significant increase in cycle length with advancing gestation [51]. The last few weeks of gestation (37–41 weeks) could therefore be considered as the critical period for sleep patterns as circadian rhythms are established. On the other hand, the shorter daily sleep duration and more sleep problems in bedtime resistance and sleep onset delay of preterm children may also reflect other factors associated with preterm birth. A growing body of evidence indicates that unmodulated parental care and noncircadian environmental conditions may be detrimental to the establishment of circadian rhythms [52‐55]. More behaviour problems and more social segregation have also been observed in children born preterm compared to full-term [56, 57]. As a consequence, these factors may also contribute to the shorter sleep duration and sleep problems of preterm children. Extrinsic and behavioural aspects of the sleep problems of preterm children might be worth investigating in future research.

The current study also shows that some sleep outcomes of early-term children (37–38 weeks) were more likely to be affected compared with those of full-term children. Not only preterm birth but also early-term birth can cause disruption at specific periods during the development of neural connections for specific brain areas which can affect sleep patterns [58]. A systematic review has suggested that early-term infants had poorer outcomes in school performance, neurodevelopment, behaviour and emotional status and long-term social outcomes [58]. Sleep disturbance might be associated with a loss of active cortical and cerebellar development between 34 and 40 weeks of gestation [59]. A cohort study also found that early-term deliveries were associated with a higher rate of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which decreases gradually as gestational age advances [60]. The sleep problems of early-term-born children may be mild and the differences are only revealed with large samples, as in the current study. In the present study, the altered sleep outcomes in early-term-born children faded in the 5-year age group. The results further suggested that the mild sleep problems observed in 3- and 4-year-old early-term-born children can be moderated by biological maturation or relevant social factors as children mature. To our knowledge, our study is the first to report sleep problems in early-term birth, which suggests that children born early-term should also be monitored more carefully due to the higher odds of experiencing sleep problems.

One important finding of the current study is that an association between post-term birth (>41 weeks) and altered sleep outcomes were observed. Previous studies have suggested that post-term birth may be associated with a range of adverse neurological, developmental, behavioural and emotional outcomes in early childhood [14, 19, 61]. Mechanisms concerning post-term birth with a higher risk of sleep disorder and shorter daily sleep hours might involve placental deterioration or insufficiency causing foetal hypoxia or nutritional deficiencies, which in turn could result in injury to the foetal brain [62]. Meconium aspiration, which is more common in post-term birth, may result in neonatal asphyxia thereby increasing the risk for brain injury and later neurodevelopmental problems [62, 63]. Lower melatonin concentration in post-term children might also contribute to a higher risk of sleep problems in post-term-born children [64].

Moreover, it should also be noted that the post-term children had different sleep profiles from preterm children as shown by subscales of the CSHQ. Preterm children showed more difficulties getting to bed (i.e. Bedtime Resistance) and longer periods of awake before sleep (i.e. Sleep Onset Delay) compared to post-term children. There were similar rates of co-sleeping in our preterm and post-term groups, and differences in these sleep behaviour problems between children born preterm and post-term might reflect other parental styles of managing bedtime routines. For example, increased parental concerns with preterm-born children could result in earlier bedtimes [65]. Previous studies also found that increased time was spent in bed in preterm children, irrespective of sleep duration [7], thus arbitrarily reducing sleep efficiency. These findings suggested that parental concern related to preterm does not automatically lead to longer sleep durations, but may lead to a longer sleep onset delay of preterm children. Similarly, the bedtime resistance of preterm children may also be associated with the altered parent-child relationship and the parenting style [66]. Previous research has shown that children with difficulties falling asleep/bedtime resistance are more likely to have parents with a higher level of parental stress [67]. Extinction for bedtime resistance involves requiring children to go to bed and stay in bed and minimizing parental attention thereafter. However, if parents have increased concerns about preterm children, this can lead to the development of substantial bedtime resistance behaviours [68]. On the other hand, parents of post-term-born children may overlook the long-term effect of the prolonged gestation of their child [69], which protects these children from the possible influences of social factors that could cause the delay in sleep onset times and bedtime resistance. Moreover, the shorter daily sleep duration of post-term children compared to full-term births was only observed in the 3- and 4-year-old group, but not in the 5-year-old group, which also suggested the sleep duration of post-term children can be improved by biological maturation or relevant social factors such as a more structured daily sleep routine in nursery. These environmental and behavioural aspects of the sleep problems of preterm and post-term children will need to be further examined in future research.

The main strength of our study was that we included and controlled for a wide range of possible confounding variables including prenatal, antenatal, and postnatal characteristics, and child and family characteristics. Another strength was that we used a nationwide large population sample, and we examined the gestational ages across the full range from preterm to post-term. Our study also had several limitations. First, we did not include all the covariates when analysing the relationship of gestational age with sleep outcomes. For example, some covariates such as maternal sleep of the mothers during pregnancy were not included in the current study but have been shown to affect childhood sleep [30]. Second, the reliance on parent-report information may raise the possibility of a differential misclassification. For example, parents of preterm children, especially very-preterm, may exaggerate the sleep problems of their preterm-born children. Thus large-scale studies using objective measures of sleep such as polysomnography PSG or actigraphy instead of parent reports would add substantially to the theoretical and practical utility of future findings. Fourthly, multiple testing exists in our analysis which may increase the probability of false positives. However, we used the Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate method for correction. Finally, it should be noted that some of the reported effect sizes were relatively small. However, the results still have clinical and public health relevance as preterm, early-term and post-term birth can affect a large segment of the population, and the results of the current study can also provide evidence for determining a composite risk.

This cohort study demonstrated that every degree of preterm, early-term and post-term birth negatively affected sleep outcomes, including an increased tendency of parent-reported pediatric sleep disorders and shorter daily sleep hours compared to full-term children. Preterm and post-term births also showed different sleep profiles with preterm children having more sleep behaviour problems. The findings address a much-needed gap in the literature to date and provide important new evidence to support the associations between gestational age and childhood sleep outcomes. The findings suggest that children born preterm, early-term and post-term should be monitored more carefully concerning their sleep health. The potential biological mechanisms between gestational age and childhood sleep should be further studied.