Babies struggling with sleep in their first year are THREE TIMES more likely to have anxiety at the age of four
- Babies who have difficulty sleeping also have twice as much chance of depression
- Scientists in Australia followed 1500 babies during childhood
- Higher percentages of mental illness were found in people who slept badly as babies
Babies who are constantly struggling to sleep in their first year are more likely to experience anxiety and depression in childhood, research suggests.
One in five babies has sleep disorders in the first 12 months, such as waking up often or problems falling asleep.
These babies are three times as likely to have emotional problems by the age of four, researchers found.
They are also more than twice as likely to have a clinically defined emotional disorder – such as depression, separation anxiety, or obsessive compulsive disorder – by the age of 10.
The scientists – from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia – said that babies who have difficulty sleeping should be carefully monitored for psychological problems in childhood.
Babies who struggle with sleep during the first year are more likely to fear children
The team followed 1,500 babies for the first year of their lives – with mothers answering a detailed questionnaire about their baby’s sleep patterns after three, six, nine and twelve months.
Each baby received a score depending on his sleep pattern and was placed in one of three categories at the end of his first year.
Approximately 19 percent were found to have ‘persistent and serious sleep problems’, including waking up at night and problems falling asleep without the help of a parent.
Another 56 percent had ‘moderate, fluctuating sleep problems’ and 25 percent had ‘slept’.
The babies were followed during childhood and their mental health was assessed at the age of four and ten.
The researchers, whose findings are published in the journal BMJ Archives of Disease in Childhood, discovered that people with persistent and severe sleep problems were 2.7 times more likely than other babies to experience symptoms of emotional problems when they were four years old.
And they were 2.4 times more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for an emotional disorder by the time they were ten.
These disorders include separation anxiety, social phobia, agoraphobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, bipolar, hyperactivity, and challenge disorder.
The scientists wrote: ‘Persistent disturbed sleep during childhood can be an early indicator of a child’s increased sensitivity to later mental health problems – particularly anxiety problems.
‘Families who report persistent sleeping problems need more support.
“Infants with persistent severe sleep problems should be monitored for new psychological problems during childhood.”
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