The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime: The effects of pet-human co-sleeping and bedsharing on sleep dimensions of children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Pets are often thought to be detrimental to sleep. Up to 75% of households with children have a pet, and 30-50% of adults and children regularly share their bed with their pets. Despite these high rates, few studies have examined the effect of pet-human co-sleeping on pediatric sleep. This study compared subjective and objective sleep in youth who never, sometimes, or frequently co-slept with pets. METHODS: Children (N = 188; aged 11-17 years; M = 13.25 years) and their parents answered standardized sleep questionnaires assessing timing, duration, onset latency, awakenings, and sleep quality. Children completed a home polysomnography (PSG) sleep study for one night and wore an actigraph for two weeks accompanied with daily sleep diary. Based on reported frequency of bedsharing with pets, children were stratified into three co-sleeping groups: never (65.4%), sometimes (16.5%), frequently (18.1%). RESULTS: Overall, 34.6% of children reported co-sleeping with their pet sometimes or frequently. Results revealed largely identical sleep profiles across co-sleeping groups; findings were congruent across sleep measurement (subjective: child, parent report; objective: PSG, actigraphy). Effect sizes indicated that frequent co-sleepers had the highest overall subjective sleep quality, but longest PSG onset-latency compared to the sometimes group. CONCLUSIONS: Co-sleeping with pets was prevalent in one third of children. Sleep dimensions were similar regardless of how frequently children reported sharing their bed with their pet. Future research should examine dyadic measurement of co-sleepers to derive causal evidence to better inform sleep recommendations.

Parental Expectations Are Associated with Children's Sleep Duration and Sleep Hygiene Habits.

OBJECTIVE: Although parents recognize the importance of sleep, most have a limited understanding of children's sleep needs. This study examined whether parental expectations about sleep were linked to children and adolescent's sleep duration and sleep hygiene. METHOD: Participants included 376 unique parent-child dyads. Parents (mean age = 47.0 years, SD = 6.7) estimated the number of hours of sleep their children (mean age = 13.0 years, SD = 2.2; 9-17 years) needed. These estimates were age-matched with recommended pediatric guidelines of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the National Sleep Foundation to yield 3 groups: expect less (8%-11%), expect appropriate (85%-89%), and expect more (3%-4%). Sleep duration for school nights and weekends were reported by children and parents. Sleep hygiene included sleep-promoting practices (quiet, dark bedroom, regular bed/wake times, consistent routine) and sleep-interfering practices (physiological arousal, presleep worry, alcohol/smoking intake, daytime napping, screen time). RESULTS: Most parents (68.7%) endorsed that children do not get enough sleep. Linear and logistic regressions were used to assess the impact of parental expectations. For every additional hour of sleep expected, children slept between 15.5 (parent-report 95% confidence interval [CI], 9.0-22.0) and 17.9 minutes (child-report 95% CI, 9.7-26.2) longer on school nights, adjusted for age, sex, puberty, and parental education. For parents who expected less sleep than recommended, their children had the shortest sleep duration, least favorable sleeping environments, and greater presleep worry. CONCLUSION: Parental sleep expectations were directly linked to children's sleep duration. Pediatricians and primary care providers can mobilize knowledge to optimally convey accurate information about developmental sleep needs and recommended hours to parents to promote longer sleep.