Sleep and Development

Sleep problems of American children have become a matter of national concern, with recent estimates indicating that 13% to 27% of children have sleep problems as reported by their parents. Considering the profound impact that disrupted sleep can have on family functioning and processes, it is critical that researchers and clinicians understand how to identify sources and contexts related to sleep disruptions and their consequences.Sleep and Development: Familial and Socio-Cultural Considerations is the first volume to integrate knowledge and approaches from numerous disciplines to focus on the sleep and development of children across adjustment and cognitive domains. Addressing the sleep patterns of children as well as those of other family members, sleep specialists from pediatrics, human development, family studies, and developmental and clinical psychology examine linkages between sleep and family processes,cultural attitudes towards sleep, and normative sleep disturbances in children, such as resistance to bedtime, chronic deprivation, and inconsistent sleep schedules. Individual chapters offer discussion on topics such as sleep and attachment, the effects of trauma on children's sleep, the cultural ecology ofsleep, clinical assessment of sleep, and more. Highlighting research findings obtained within the last ten years, Sleep and Development synthesizes literature from disparate areas of inquiry in an effort to frame future investigations that will lead to a deeper and better integrated understanding of sleep and development. This comprehensive volume is a fundamental text for students, researchers, psychologists, and physicians interested in the study of sleep and sleepproblems.

"The most important and practical questions about sleep in children and adolescents in contemporary society require an integrated approach that includes a broader understanding of the family, social, and cultural contexts in which sleep occurs, develops, goes awry, and influences and interacts with an immense range of different aspects of life. Mona El-Sheikh and her colleagues have taken a huge step toward accomplishing this set of goals. This book provides a matrix of understanding the family and socio-cultural contexts that is not only pragmatically helpful and interesting, but also will help to frame future investigations that will lead to a deeper and better integrated understanding of sleep and development across numerous disciplines." --from the Foreword by Ronald E. Dahl, M.D., Professor of Public Health University of California at Berkeley "This volume is an extremely valuable contribution to the pediatric sleep field and represents a notable blend of science with applications to real parent and child contexts, while maintaining a scientifically accurate vision. It deserves close scrutiny from all those who are involved in developmental sleep research and want to look at a child's sleep from an evolutionary (or different) perspective."--Oliviero Bruni, M.D., President of the International Pediatric Sleep Association and Director of the Pediatric Sleep Center, Department of Developmental Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy "At last! A comprehensive and integrative review of exciting new research and practice of one of the most important human activities --sleep. Sleep is a biological function that affects growth and health, a psychological function that affects social-emotional and cognitive functioning, and a culturally organized social function that affects the emotional and physical health of other family members. In this book a cast of experts in each of these domains presents an overview and a biopsychosocial integration that will be of great use to students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers who are invested in understanding and improving sleep, and consequently, the quality of life of developing children."--Arnold Sameroff, Ph.D., Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan

Mona El-Sheikh, Ph.D. is the Leonard Peterson & Co. Inc. Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University. Her ongoing interdisciplinary research focuses on associations among family risk, psychophysiological regulation, sleep, and child outcomes in psychological adjustment, physical health, cognitive functioning, and academic performance domains.