Reasons to Bedtime and Wake-Up Time in Preschool Children in a Public School

*Corresponding author e-mail: saturniana@hotmail.com Introduction: Social exigencies as early school starting time and the precocious usage of entertainment devices are altering sleep/ wake patterns of younger children. These activities that are being done near the bedtime can interfere negatively on their development, especially in school-aged children. The aim of this study was compare the reasons to bedtime and wake-up time in preschool children according to gender. Methods: 29 Brazilian children (18 females and 11 males), aged 4-6 years, that attended to school on the morning in a public school of Natal-RN/Brazil were evaluated through sleep habits questionnaire answered by the parents, who were asked to assess the motivations to bedtime and wake-up time of their children in school and weekend days. Results: On school days, the motivation to bedtime most frequently reported by the parents was “ordered by parents” (38.5%) and to wake-up time, “school starting time” (92.6%). On weekends, “playing” (26.9%) was the most reported to bedtime and “not being sleepy” (51.8%), “go to the church” (22.2%) and “sauntering” (18.5%) to wake-up time (Chi-square, p<0,05). The bedtime and wake-up time were earlier and the time in bed was lower on school days when compared to weekend (Wilcoxon, p<0,05). Comparing gender, on school days the most observed reason for bedtime for boys was “feeling sleepy” (66.7%) and for girls, “watching TV” (43.7%) and to wake-up time, “not being sleepy” (22.2%) for boys while for the girls there was no significant difference among the motivations. On weekends, the most reported reason for bedtime for girls was “watching TV” (50.0%) and “playing” (31.2%) and for boys it was “feeling sleepy” (55.5%); to wake-up time the most informed for girls was to “go to the church” (18.7%) (Chi-square, p<0,05). For boys, the analysis of the data revealed no significant differences among the options. Some additional results were that the boys showed later bedtime (Mann-Whitney, p<0,05) and a trend to lower sleep duration (Mann-Whitney, p=0,09) from Saturday to Sunday when compared to girls. Besides, the frequency of nap was higher in girls (61.1%) than in boys (Chi-square, p<0,05). Conclusion: According to the preliminary results, the entertainment and social activities in school and weekend days influence the sleep/wake cycle in preschool children and these activities are different according to gender, but for confirm these hypothesis is necessary increase the sample. Publication History Article published online: 16 June 2026 © 2009. Brazilian Sleep Academy. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Thieme Revinter Publicações Ltda. Rua Rego Freitas, 175, loja 1, República, São Paulo, SP, CEP 01220-010, Brazil