The following is a summary of “Sleep Patterns and School Readiness of Pre-Kindergarteners from Racially and Ethnically Diverse, Low-Income Backgrounds,” published in the December 2022 issue of Pediatrics by Turnbull, et al.

For a study, researchers sought to determine the relationships between trends in parent-reported child sleep health and school readiness for newly enrolled prekindergarten (PreK) students from low-income, racially and ethnically diverse families.

Parental reports of sleep health for 351 kids (mean age, 52.8 ± 3.5 months) during the first month of PreK were assessed as part of a broader multiple-cohort longitudinal observational research of prekindergartners from low-income homes. Along with completing direct tests for language, literacy, mathematics, and executive functioning, children also had their social-emotional-behavioral skills and learning styles evaluated by teachers at the start of Pre-K. They used regression models to examine concurrent associations between child sleep health patterns and school readiness competencies across 6 domains: language, literacy, mathematics, executive functioning, social-emotional-behavioral, and learning approaches. They performed latent class analyses to identify patterns in sleep health.

There were two groups that represented more and less wholesome sleep routines. In comparison to their peers in the later, shorter, inconsistent sleep health class, children in the earlier, longer, consistent sleep health class (87% of children) had earlier bedtimes, longer nighttime sleep durations, more consistent sleep routines, consumed less caffeine three hours before bedtime, and performed better on a direct assessment of expressive vocabulary as well as teacher-reported measures of social-emotional-behavioral competencies and learning approaches.

For PreK students from racially and ethnically diverse, low-income households, regular sleep schedules and improved sleep health may act as a protective mechanism for language development, social-emotional-behavioral control, and learning styles. Clinical talks with parents about good sleep hygiene may present significant chances for specialized instruction that supports the development of academic-ready skills.

Reference: jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(22)00667-9/fulltext