Late Bedtimes Are Associated With Lower Behavioral, Cognitive, and Motor Performance, Independent of Sleep Duration

Whitney Schott , University of Pennsylvania

Associations between sleep problems and behavioral, cognitive and motor performance are known to exist, but less is known about the role of bedtimes among typical children. This paper examines child development outcomes in Chile in relation to bedtimes. Children with later bedtimes (highest quartile of deviation between individual bedtime and mean bedtime) had higher scores on the child behavioral checklist (CBCL) areas of anxiety/depression, withdrawal, somatic symptoms, attention problems, aggression, social problems, thinking problems, and disruptive behavior at age 6y, independent of the total number of hours slept per day. Children with late bedtimes had lower scores on at least one cognitive outcome at ages 3y, 4y, 5y and 6y and on the motor tests at ages 3y and 5y, independent of the number of hours slept. Results point to the importance of bedtimes and circadian rhythms in child development, independent of total sleep duration.

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 Presented in Session 11. Health & Mortality 2