Impact of Snack and Beverage Intake on Preschoolers' Sleep

Abstract

Behavioral sleep problems are common in children aged 2-5, yet little sleep research has been conducted on this population. It also remains unclear how food and beverage consumption contribute to sleep problems. The objective of this study was to understand how evening snack and beverage intake impact sleep quality in preschool-aged children. Four hundred twenty-three children (mean age = 44.5 months) participated in this study. Children wore actigraphy watches for the 7-day data collection period. Actigraphy data were used to calculate sleep onset latency (SOL) and percent wake after sleep onset (%WASO), the sleep outcomes for the study. Self-report diaries were completed by participants’ parents during the same 7-day period to document what children ate and drank after dinner. Snacks were consumed on 36.2% of total nights, and 80.4% of children consumed a snack on at least one night of data collection. Sweets were consumed by 56.5% of the children who had a snack, followed by fruit (40.4%), grains (29.8%), and dairy (27.0%). Water was consumed by 94.1% of children at least once, followed by milk (43.3%) and juice (12.3%). A fixed effects regression analysis showed that consuming a beverage was significantly associated with 0.778% less waking in children during the subsequent night (95% CI: -1.320 to -0.235, p < 0.05), or about 4.5 minutes per night. Consuming water was also associated with 0.679% less waking (95% CI: -1.267 to -0.092, p < 0.05), or about 4.0 minutes. This study adds to the research on consumption patterns of preschool-aged children and offers evidence that consuming water before bed may benefit children experiencing behavioral sleep problems.