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Bullied children more likely to develop parasomnias
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Children who are bullied have an increased risk for parasomnias, including nightmares, night terrors and sleepwalking, according to study findings in Pediatrics.
Dieter Wolke, PhD, of the University of Warwick in Coventry, United Kingdom, and colleagues interviewed 6,796 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children birth cohort about nightmares, night terrors and sleepwalking. Children were interviewed about bullying when they were aged 8 and 10 years and were interviewed about parasomnias at a mean age of 12.9 years.
Dieter Wolke
Overall, 36.2% (n=2,462) of children experienced at least one parasomnia in the past 6 months. Nearly 25% of children reported nightmares, 9.3% reported night terrors and 12.6% reported sleepwalking at follow-up.
Nearly one-third of children were victims of bullying, 1% were bullies and 6.7% were bully/victims at age 8 years. When aged 10 years, 18.5% were victims, 0.8% were bullies and 5.5% were bully/victims. Overall, 35.3% of children were victims at age 8 or 10 years and 13.5% were victims at both ages.
Being bullied at either age was associated with any type of parasomnia. Children who were chronically victimized were more likely to experience parasomnias, whereas children who were bully/victims at age 8 and 10 years were more likely to have night terrors. Children who were bullies did not have an increased risk for parasomnias.
Children who were victims at age 8 years had an overall risk for nightmares of 1.23 (95% CI, 1.05-1.44) and those who were victims at age 10 years had an overall risk of 1.62 (95% CI, 1.35-1.94). Children who were victims at age 8 years had an overall risk for night terrors of 1.39 (95% CI, 1.1-1.75) and those who were victims at age 10 years had an overall risk of 1.53 (95% CI, 1.18-1.98).
Being a victim at both ages was significantly associated with nightmares (OR=1.82; 95% CI, 1.46-2.27), night terrors (OR=2.01; 95% CI, 1.48-2.74) and any type of parasomnia (OR=2.1; 95% CI, 1.72-2.58).
Children who were bully/victims also had an increased risk for any parasomnia when aged 8 or 10 years, with an overall risk of 1.42 and 1.75, respectively.
Parasomnias at age 12 years was associated with female gender, persistent nightmares or night waking at preschool or school age, low IQ, low family hardship and higher behavior problems.
“These findings suggest that these rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep arousal disorders may indicate continuous stress processed at night. This stress may be attributable to being bullied at school. … If a child is experiencing frequent parasomnias, parents, teachers, school counselors, and clinicians may consider asking about bullying. This would allow detecting bullied children and providing the help they need at an early time to reduce the negative effects of being bullied,” the researchers concluded.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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