Frequent Night Awakenings in Infants and Preschool Children Referred to a Sleep Disorders Clinic: The Role of Nonadaptive Sleep Associations

Thirty-two children (ages 6 months-4 years) with night awakenings recruited from a sleep disorders clinic were studied to determine if they had more exposure to nonadaptive sleep associations after adjusting for other known night awakening risk factors than 54 matched control children without night awakenings recruited from referring physicians. Data from a parent-report questionnaire assessing the status of night awakenings, sleep associations, and other potential causes for night awakenings were analyzed with a multiple logistic regression. The 2 most important risk variables for night awakenings reaching significance at the multivariate level were nonadaptive sleep associations (adjusted odds ratio = 21.83, 95% CI = 4.52-105.47, p = .0001) and maternal depression (adjusted odds ratio = 3.61, 95% CI = 1.03-12.62, p = .04).