Subjective Daytime Sleepiness and Related Predictors in Finnish Schoolchildren

Daytime sleepiness in children and adolescents has negative consequences on schoolchildren's daily life and functioning (1-3). Thus it is important to evaluate the prevalence of daytime sleepiness and to find out its predictors. The prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness in children and adolescents has varied between 0 and 35% in epidemiological studies (4-10). An increase of daytime sleepiness has been shown to occur during puberty (11). A longitudinal study about sleep requirement through puberty (12) has shown that excessive sleep requirement does not seem to be a constant phenomenon. The most common predictor found for daytime sleepiness is short sleeping time on weekdays combined with an irregular sleep-wake schedule during the week (2,9,13,14). Poor sleep quality has also been connected with daytime sleepiness (7,9,15,16). In epidemiological studies among young adults the symptom has been connected to use of hypnotics and psychoactive substances (9,14) and snoring (9). Tiredness has also been associated with depression (17). The aim of the present study was to analyse the associations between schoolchildren's subjective feeling of daytime sleepiness (SDS) and their sleeping habits and disorders, the effect of their parents' sleeping habits and sleep disorders, and the impact of the social situation of the family by a multivariate statistical method. Subjective Daytime Sleepiness and Related Predictors in Finnish Schoolchildren