Sleep habits and sleep characteristics at age 1 year in the ELFE birth cohort study

Sabine Messayke (1) , Patricia Franco (2) , Anne Forhan (1) , Marie-Noëlle Dufourg (3) , Marie-Aline Charles (3, 1) , Sabine Plancoulaine (1)

1 CRESS (U1153 / UMR_A_1125 / UMR_S_1153) - Centre de Recherche Épidémiologie et Statistique Sorbonne Paris Cité
2 CRNL - Centre de recherche en neurosciences de Lyon - Lyon Neuroscience Research Center
3 ELFE - Etude longitudinale française depuis l'enfance (UMS : Ined-Inserm-EFS)

Infant sleep plays a critical role in normal development. Sleep problems, including sleep onset difficulties (SODs) and night waking (NW), range from 20% to 30% in infants and young children and can be persistent over time up to adulthood. Young French children seem to have longer sleep durations and less sleep troubles than their counterparts worldwide. Here, we aimed at describing infant sleep characteristics (total sleep time (TST)/24 h, NW, and SODs) and associated sleep habits in infants at age one year from the French nationwide birth cohort Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l'Enfance (ELFE). METHODS: This study included 11,783 infants with information on both sleep characteristics and sleep habits (parental presence when falling asleep, eating to fall asleep, sucking a pacifier or finger to sleep and sleep arrangement and location). Associations were studied by multinomial logistic regression analyses adjusted for familial and infant characteristics. RESULTS: Mean TST was 13 h36 min including 2 h54 min of naps; 20% of the infants had TST ≤12 h/24 h. About 46% did not present SOD or NW, 16% had frequent SODs and 22% had NW > 1 night in 2. Parental presence, feeding to fall asleep and infant sleep arrangements were frequent in infants with short sleep duration (≤12 h/24 h), NW and SODs. Non-nutritive sucking was associated with risk of NW, SOD and TST >14 h/24 h. Parental room sharing was associated with NW. CONCLUSION: This work provides new information on infant sleep arrangements and non-nutritive sucking that should be accounted for when considering sleep behaviors. In addition, most identified sleep habits associated with poor sleep characteristics may be amenable to change.

Keywords: Birth-cohort; Epidemiology; Infant; Night waking; Sleep duration; Sleep onset difficulty

Domains: Food and Nutrition; Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]; Santé publique et épidémiologie

Sabine Messayke, Patricia Franco, Anne Forhan, Marie-Noëlle Dufourg, Marie-Aline Charles, et al.. Sleep habits and sleep characteristics at age 1 year in the ELFE birth cohort study. Sleep Medicine, 2019, 67, pp.200-206. ⟨10.1016/j.sleep.2019.11.1255⟩. ⟨inserm-02453993⟩