A Study of Sleep Habits of the Students of Primary Schools of Rasht City From ‎Parents, Point of View

Introduction: Sleep and enough rest are the primary requirements of human, s health and survival &lrm;and the quality of sleep has a significant role in improving and maintaining health. Sleep habits are &lrm;effective on the quality and quantity of sleep during childhood.&lrm; Objective: This study is carried out to identify the sleep habits of the students of primary schools. &lrm; Methods: This is a cross &ndash; sectional study. The research society included all school age children in &lrm;the age range of &lrm;&rlm;7&rlm;&lrm; to &lrm;&rlm;11&rlm;&lrm;, studying in districts &lrm;&rlm;1&rlm;&lrm; and &lrm;&rlm;2&rlm;&lrm; of Rasht city. Among these, &lrm;&rlm;768&rlm;&lrm; boy and girl &lrm;students of primary schools were selected from both districts using cluster method. Data gathering &lrm;tool was a questionnaire including two parts. The first part acquires personal and family information &lrm;and the second part includes ordinary questions about sleep, answered by the mothers. To analyze &lrm;the data, inferential and descriptive statistical methods were used.&lrm; &nbsp;Results: The research findings reveal that night &ndash; long insomnia is the most prevalent sleep habits &lrm;with the point of &lrm;&rlm;1.79&rlm;&lrm; &plusmn; &lrm;&rlm;0.43&rlm;&lrm; and &lrm;&rlm;94.7%&rlm;&lrm; always wake up during the night with perspiration and &lrm;scream and they do not become calm easily. These are the most prevalent sleep behavior in children &lrm;under study. There was also significant relation between the sleep habits of the children with their &lrm;age, educational grade, sharing bedroom with a brother or sister, participating in sport classes, &lrm;numbers of children in family, numbers of family members, parents, educational level, parents, &lrm;occupation, and monthly income(P<&lrm;&rlm;0.01&rlm;&lrm;).&lrm; &nbsp;Conclusion: In consideration of the mean value and the general standard deviation calculated(&lrm;&rlm;1.55&rlm;&lrm; &lrm;&lrm;&plusmn; &lrm;&rlm;0.17&rlm;&lrm;) which is higher than the scale mean(&lrm;&rlm;1.5&rlm;&lrm;) and since high mean value implies improper sleep &lrm;habits, it can be deducted that the sleep habits of children residing in Rasht is not proper.&lrm;