A new study has revealed that babies with severe sleep problems could face a higher risk of anxiety and emotional issues in later childhood.
The researchers examined 1,507 first-time mothers and their babies and discovered that babies with severe sleep problems could have a higher likelihood of developing childhood anxiety and emotional issues.
The study, published the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, showed that one in five of the babies had what they described as "persistent severe sleep problems" during their first year.
Lead researcher Dr. Fallon Cook of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, said: "A lot of the infants were waking up quite a lot at three months, and that's normal, but we found that around 19% really had persistent and severe sleep problems that were troublesome right across that first year."
"These are babies who, even by 12 months of age, are still waking three or more times during the night. And they might be taking up to hour to go to sleep, and they are very difficult to settle when they awake during the night," Dr. Cook mentioned.
Results revealed that compared with infants whose sleep patterns were settled, those with persistent and severe sleep difficulties were nearly three times as likely to have symptoms of emotional problems when they were four years old.
Furthermore, these babies were more than twice as likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for an emotional disorder by the time they were 10 years old.
The study reported: "These infants were more likely to experience elevated symptoms of separation anxiety, fear of physical injury and overall elevated anxiety than settled infants."
Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the chair of the Pediatric Sleep Council, said parents may want to watch out "for developing signs of emotional and mental health problems if their infant has moderate to severe sleep issues."
She explained: "The primary finding of this study is that infants with sleep problems are up to twice as likely to have mental health issues, primarily anxiety-based concerns at ages four and 10 years. Putting it in context for parents, the likelihood increases from approximately 5-15% for all children to about 10-25%."
