The Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in 1 to 2 Year Infants Refering to Health Centers in Yazd, 2008-2009

Sleep is recognized as an essential part of life. Sleep problems are one of the common parental concerns for pediatricians. This study was performed on 301 infants aged 1-2 years referring to health centers of Yazd for vaccination from 2008 to 2009. Of the patients, 71% had a delayed fall asleep; 62% of them had unfavorable sleep habits such as drinking milk from the breast or a bottle. Approximately 50% of them had 2-3 times and 25% more than three times night walking. Mean of nocturnal sleep for them was 9.45 hours and less than half of them (46.2%) had enough nocturnal sleep the duration of which was between 12-14 hr. Also 46.2% had sweating during sleep. 96.7% of the children had room sharing with parents and 40.2% had bed sharing with their parents. In the current study there was no relationship between type of delivery, sex and weight of infants with sleep disorders. Sleep disorder was significantly more common in children with abnormal sleep habit. This study showed that bedtime resistance and the irregular bedtime are seen more associated with each other. High frequency of sleep problem in the study may indicate the extent of sleep problems in our kids and public education regarding sleep hygiene to promote parent's awareness is essential to alleviate this problem.