{"doi":"10.3389/frsle.2025.1681175","title":"Early childhood sleep quality in a pediatric cohort: sex-specific differences","abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Poor sleep health in childhood has significant implications for life-long physical, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes, but sleep problems and potential developmentally-driven sex differences in early childhood are poorly understood.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To objectively assess sleep health and investigate sex-specific differences in sleep in early childhood.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Three hundred thirty-six children enrolled in the PRogramming of Intergenerational Stress Mechanisms (PRISM) pregnancy cohort in Boston and New York City underwent actigraphy for 7 days. A subset (\n                      <jats:italic>n</jats:italic>\n                      = 117) completed home unattended Type II polysomnography (PSG). Sleep parameters from actigraphy and PSG were examined using standard descriptive analyses, and non-parametric tests of comparison of means, specifically two-sample Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests, were used to assess differences between boys and girls.\n                    </jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Children were median (IQR) age of 6.9 (4.9, 8.9) years, half were male, and most were Black (46.2%) and/or Hispanic (33.9%). On actigraphy, average sleep duration and sleep efficiency were low compared to published normative data, with median (IQR) time spent asleep of 7.8 (7.4, 8.3) hours and sleep efficiency of 79.1% (74.7, 82.6). Wake duration after sleep onset (WASO) assessed by actigraphy was elevated (median (IQR) of 1.8 (1.4, 2.2) hours), and significantly worse among boys compared to girls (\n                      <jats:italic>p</jats:italic>\n                      = 0.0007). Overall, boys had significantly more restless and fragmented sleep as measured by both actigraphy and PSG. Sleep disordered breathing events were infrequent, with median (IQR) Apnea-Hypopnea Index of 0.7 (0.3, 1.3) events per hour.\n                    </jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Clinically significant and objectively assessed sleep disturbance was common in this pediatric cohort, and worse in boys compared to girls. These findings emphasize early sex-based sleep disparities warranting intervention to intercept lifelong consequences of poor sleep in early childhood.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>","journal":"Frontiers in Sleep","year":2025,"id":613133,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1579320,"name":"Kristie R. Ross","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":747379,"name":"Xin Zheng","orcid":"0000-0002-7306-9688","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1100037,"name":"Naim Xhani","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1579322,"name":"Tamás Ötvös","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1579323,"name":"Francheska M. Merced-Nieves","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":17008,"name":"Susan Redline","orcid":"0000-0002-6585-1610","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":275585,"name":"Rosalind J. Wright","orcid":"0000-0002-4262-2807","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":227541,"name":"Sonali Bose","orcid":"0000-0002-8639-4789","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Early childhood sleep quality in a pediatric cohort: sex-specific differences","abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Poor sleep health in childhood has significant implications for life-long physical, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes, but sleep problems and potential developmentally-driven sex differences in early childhood are poorly understood.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Objective</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>To objectively assess sleep health and investigate sex-specific differences in sleep in early childhood.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Three hundred thirty-six children enrolled in the PRogramming of Intergenerational Stress Mechanisms (PRISM) pregnancy cohort in Boston and New York City underwent actigraphy for 7 days. A subset (\n                      <jats:italic>n</jats:italic>\n                      = 117) completed home unattended Type II polysomnography (PSG). Sleep parameters from actigraphy and PSG were examined using standard descriptive analyses, and non-parametric tests of comparison of means, specifically two-sample Wilcoxon Rank Sum tests, were used to assess differences between boys and girls.\n                    </jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Children were median (IQR) age of 6.9 (4.9, 8.9) years, half were male, and most were Black (46.2%) and/or Hispanic (33.9%). On actigraphy, average sleep duration and sleep efficiency were low compared to published normative data, with median (IQR) time spent asleep of 7.8 (7.4, 8.3) hours and sleep efficiency of 79.1% (74.7, 82.6). Wake duration after sleep onset (WASO) assessed by actigraphy was elevated (median (IQR) of 1.8 (1.4, 2.2) hours), and significantly worse among boys compared to girls (\n                      <jats:italic>p</jats:italic>\n                      = 0.0007). Overall, boys had significantly more restless and fragmented sleep as measured by both actigraphy and PSG. Sleep disordered breathing events were infrequent, with median (IQR) Apnea-Hypopnea Index of 0.7 (0.3, 1.3) events per hour.\n                    </jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Clinically significant and objectively assessed sleep disturbance was common in this pediatric cohort, and worse in boys compared to girls. These findings emphasize early sex-based sleep disparities warranting intervention to intercept lifelong consequences of poor sleep in early childhood.</jats:p>\n                  </jats:sec>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"41425194","pmcid":"PMC12713980","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W7114800860","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":1.1364,"citation_percentile":0.84174334,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://public-pages-files-2025.frontiersin.org/journals/sleep/articles/10.3389/frsle.2025.1681175/pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://public-pages-files-2025.frontiersin.org/journals/sleep/articles/10.3389/frsle.2025.1681175/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsle.2025.1681175/full","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/frsle.2025.1681175","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41425194","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/e6af2b77aaea4707bc5366af9acc1061","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12713980/","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12713980","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12713980?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Sleep and related disorders","Sleep and Wakefulness Research","Obstructive Sleep Apnea Research"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Sleep (system call)","Intervention (counseling)","Early childhood","Sleep disorder","Sleep quality","Child","Sex","Sleep","polysomnography","actigraphy"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"No poverty"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-02T06:44:53.474037Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}