SLEEP PATTERN IN SCHOOL - AGE CHILDREN, RESIDENTS OF THE WEST AREA IN TEHRAN

Sleep pattern has changed dranatically during recent centuries. In fact the lack of coordination between children’s sleep pattern and school time schedule, expose them to insomnia which daily fatigue and influence on their health. The design of this study was cross sectional. The aim of the study was assessing sleep pattern in school age children and the relationship between sleep pattern and some variables such as age, and sex. The study analysis based on the results of 900 school age children for whom mothers have completed a related questionnaire and participated in an interview. The result indicated that Mean and standard deviation of bed time 10.53 (0.90)h and wake- up time in the morning was 6.69(0.73). The mean and standard deviation of total sleep time was 8.82(1.23). A considerable proportion of the children (49.2%) have been sleeping less than 9 hours during nights. In addition, there were significant relationships between the variables of the sex and age with the children's sleep pattern. To conclude, the findings showed that the children don’t have normal amount of sleep. Therefore, it would be necessary that the time of school hours being matched with the developmental stages of children and it was recommended that to investigate sleep pattern of children in different ages in the future studies.