WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- New research shows that insomnia symptoms in children will most probably stay with them as young adults and are significantly more likely to develop an insomnia disorder in early adulthood compared to children who do not have difficulty sleeping.
Penn State College of Medicine conducted a study starting in the year 2000 based on children ages 5-12 years. Children and their parents provided reports of the children’s insomnia symptoms -- defined as moderate-to-severe difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sleep. The children also participated in an objective in-laboratory sleep study using polysomnography, which can identify sleep apnea and other indicators such as the amount and quality of sleep. The team studied 502 children 7.4 years later as adolescents (median 16 years old) and 15 years later as young adults (median 24 years old).
The scientist discovered that 43% of children with insomnia symptoms continued to suffer through adolescence into adulthood. Although about 27% of children with insomnia symptoms experienced remission of symptoms by adolescence, close to 19% experienced a waxing and waning pattern into adulthood. Among children without insomnia symptoms, about 15% of them developed insomnia symptoms in the transition to adolescence and persisted with them into adulthood, and another 21% newly developed them in young adulthood. In addition, about 16% of these children without insomnia symptoms experienced a waxing-and-waning pattern.