Study Finds Insomnia Symptoms Often Follow Children Into Adulthood

A 15-year study has found that childhood-onset insomnia symptoms can be long-lasting, indicating that 43% of children persist with insomnia symptoms through young adulthood, while 20% worsen into adult insomnia. The risk of insomnia symptoms worsening into adult insomnia was greatest among adolescents who were short sleepers. The study, “Trajectories of Insomnia Symptoms from Childhood through Young Adulthood,” which will be published in the March 2022 issue of Pediatrics (published online Feb. 17), found that the odds of insomnia symptoms worsening into adult insomnia were 2.6-fold among children and 5.5-fold among adolescents who slept a short time in the lab setting. Early sleep interventions are a health priority, and pediatricians should not expect insomnia symptoms to resolve by themselves in a high proportion of children, the authors note. Sleep measures may be clinically useful in adolescence, a critical period for the adverse prognosis of insomnia, the authors conclude.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.