Babies Sleeping & Behavior Problems

How babies sleep might be tied closely to behavior problems later in life.

How they sleep, or more importantly how they breath while they sleep, can be a clue to possible behavior problems later on in life. For some time we've known that children's sleep can influence their amount of hyperactivity or other behavior problems. But this new large study has found that breathing problems during their sleep might be part of the issue. And it might even be contributing to issues when they get older.

A new study, just published in the Journal Pediatrics, followed 11,000 babies and asked their parents to report on how much they snored, used mouth breathing or had times where they held their breath while sleeping. Researchers found out that those having more of these sleep problems also ended up having more behavior issues when they were 7 years old. Those problems included hyperactivity, aggressiveness, anxiety and depression. Plus these children also had a harder time getting along with their classmates.

So, the message here is for parents to pay closer attention to how their babies sleep. If you notice excessive snoring or if it seems like they are holding their breath while sleeping, bring this up to their doctor so you can work together to figure out how to help them.