Too Little Sleep in Preschool Years May Predict ADHD (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) -- Preschoolers who don't get enough sleep are more likely than other children to be hyperactive and inattentive by the time they reach kindergarten, according to a new study.

Although attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is typically not diagnosed before age 5, the study's authors said the onset of ADHD-like symptoms, such as inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity, often occurs earlier.

"These findings suggest that some children who are not getting adequate sleep may be at risk for developing behavioral problems manifested by hyperactivity, impulsivity, and problems sitting still and paying attention," study lead author Erika Gaylor, senior researcher for SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif., said in a news release from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

In conducting the study, researchers examined the sleeping patterns (based on parental accounts of bedtimes and wake times) of roughly 6,860 children, taking into account their gender, ethnicity and family income. Parents were also asked to evaluate ADHD-like symptoms in their children, including attention and task persistence as well as hyperactivity and impulsivity.

"Children who were reported to sleep less in preschool were rated by their parents as more hyperactive and less attentive compared to their peers at kindergarten," Gaylor said.

However, inattention and hyperactivity in the preschool years was not a predictor of sleep duration in kindergarten, the researchers said.

The findings were scheduled for presentation Tuesday at a meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Minneapolis.

In a previous study, Gaylor reported that having a consistent bedtime was the most reliable predictor of positive developmental outcomes by age 4.

Because the study is slated to be presented at a meeting, the findings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides detailed information on the symptoms and diagnosis of ADHD.

Sleep position may affect stillbirth risk (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Women who do not sleep on their left side on their last night of pregnancy have double the risk of late stillbirth compared with women who do sleep on their left side, according to a study from New Zealand.

The researchers who conducted the study said women should not worry because the increased risk is still very small -- the chance of the baby being stillborn rises to 3.93 per 1,000 for those who don't sleep on their left from 1.96 per 1,000 for those who do.

A significant link was also found between sleeping regularly during the day, or sleeping longer than average at night, and late stillbirth risk, the researchers said.

Tomasina Stacey of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Auckland, whose study was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), suggested that restricted blood flow to the baby when the mother lies on her back or right side for long periods may explain the link.

But she said the findings, which were based on a relatively small number of women, needed to be confirmed by larger, more detailed studies before any public health advice could be given.

"It's a new hypothesis and means we should start to look at this problem much more closely. It's really a starting point for future research," Stacey said in a telephone interview.

If the findings were confirmed, they might offer a simple, cheap and natural way to cut the number of stillbirths, she said. "It's something that's very easily modifiable. You don't need to take any drugs and there are no side effects."

A series of studies led by researchers from the World Health Organization and published earlier this year found that more than 2.6 million pregnancies a year end in stillbirth, many of them among women in poor countries. This means that every day more than 7,200 babies are stillborn.

Stacey's team interviewed 155 women in Auckland who gave birth to a stillborn baby between July 2006 and June 2009 when they were at least 28 weeks pregnant. These women were compared to a control group of 310 women with ongoing pregnancies.

The women were asked detailed questions about their sleep positions, and about going to sleep and waking up before pregnancy and in the last month, week, and night before they believed their baby had died.

They were also asked about snoring, daytime sleepiness, whether they regularly slept during the day in the last month of pregnancy, the duration of their sleep at night, and how many times they got up to the toilet at night.

The results showed no link between snoring or daytime sleepiness and risk of late stillbirth. But a significant link was found between daytime sleeping, or sleeping longer than average at night, and late stillbirth risk.

Women who slept on their back or on their right side on the last night of pregnancy were also more likely to experience a late stillbirth, and women who got up to go to the toilet once or less on the last night were also more likely to experience a late stillbirth compared with women who got up more frequently.

In a commentary on the study in the BMJ, Lucy Chappell, lecturer in maternal and fetal medicine from King's College London, said "any simple intervention that reduces the risk of stillbirth would be extremely welcome."

But she said the results should be interpreted with caution until more work is done: "A forceful campaign urging pregnant women to sleep on their left side is not yet warranted."

Emotional Abuse in Childhood May Disrupt Sleep Decades Later (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Emotional abuse in childhood can lead to sleep disruption in old age, a new study finds.

In analyzing nearly 900 adults ageD 60 and older, researchers found that seniors who were emotionally abused by their parents decades earlier were at greater risk for poor sleep quality years later.

"A negative early attachment continues to exert an influence on our well-being decades later through an accumulation of stressful interpersonal experiences across our lives," study author Cecilia Y. M. Poon, said in a news release from the Gerontological Society of America. "The impact of abuse stays in the system. Emotional trauma may limit a person's ability to fend for themselves emotionally and successfully navigate the social world."

The study included 877 adults who answered questions about their childhood in a 1995 midlife development survey. A decade later, these participants were re-questioned about their relationships, emotional distress and quality of sleep, including how often within the past month they had trouble falling or remaining asleep or felt tired regardless of how much sleep they got.

Researchers found those who endured early emotional abuse (not physical abuse or emotional neglect) by their parents reported a higher number of problems sleeping in old age.

Emotional abuse included insults, swearing, silent treatment, intimidation, or threats of violence or physical abuse.

The study, published in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences, pointed out that emotional abuse during childhood also took a toll on adult relationships.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the emotional abuse of children.