A clinical director of the Pediatric Partial Hospital Program at Bradley Hospital, John Boekamp, was the head of a study that discovered that toddlers that had sleep troubles were more likely to receive clinical treatment for psychiatric disorders. His study was published in Child Psychiatry & Human Development, which means that it is not suffering from the file drawer problem. His study was entitled “Sleep Onset and Night Waking Insomnias in Preschoolers with Psychiatric Disorders.”

Toddlers that do not receive a good night sleep are more likely to suffer from behavior problems due to daytime drowsiness, irritability, and hyperactivity. Boekamp and fellow researchers studied young children who have emotional, behavioral or relationship disturbances. This study focused on 183 young children. These 183 children are all diagnosed with sleep disorders including Sleep Onset Insomnia and Night Waking Insomnia. Out of all the children in the study, forty-one percent of them met criteria for being diagnosed with a sleep disorder.

The affects of having a sleep disorder include challenging daytime behaviors, such as problems with compliance, aggression, attention and mood, sleepiness, and fatigue.

Boekamp said, “This study is a great reminder that it’s critical for mental health providers working with young children and their families to ask about children’s sleep.” He continued by saying, “Simple questions about children’s sleep patterns, including how long it takes a child to fall asleep at night and how frequently a child awakens after falling asleep, may yield important information that is relevant to clinical care, even when sleep problems are not the primary focus of treatment.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141023132220.htm