Comparison of Sleep Characteristics, Patterns, and Problems in Young Children Within the Southeast Asian Region.

Background And Objectives: Optimal sleeping habits are important for health development of infants. The role of culture in sleep habits cannot be underestimated. We aimed to characterize sleep patterns, sleep practices, and sleep problems; and assess the sleep settings and parental perceptions of sleep problems in children from birth to 36 months in countries in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region.

Participants: Parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers (birth to 36 months old) from countries in Southeast Asia participated in this study.

Methods: Data was collected using the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire for a total of 5,987 children from 6 countries in the SEA region (967 Indonesia/ID, 997 Malaysia/MY, 1,034 Philippines/PH, 1,001 Singapore/SG, 988 Thailand/TH, and 1,000 Vietnam/VN).

Results: The sleep variables varied among SEA children studied. Bedtimes and nighttime sleep varied across the region by as much as 1 hr 34 min and 1 hr 15 min respectively.

Conclusions: Despite being geographically very close together and having some common sociocultural characteristics, sleep variables in the young child within the SEA region do differ in significant ways.