Prawin Kumar

Aims and background: The sleep-wake cycle and sleep consolidation are essential to children's growth and development.There is a paucity of studies on the sleep characteristics and the effect of electronic media on them in healthy Indian infants and toddlers.The objectives were to assess the sleep characteristics of healthy Indian infants and toddlers and to examine the impact of electronic media on them.Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study at a tertiary center in India, among healthy children aged 3-36 months.Those with concurrent illness (e.g., gastroenteritis, respiratory illness) were excluded.A Hindi version of the Revised Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ-R) was used to assess sleep patterns.Results: A total of 100 children were enrolled during the study period; their median (IQR) age was 12.1 (3.5, 18) months, with most of them being males (74%).The median (IQR) total sleep duration was 11 (10.0,13.3) hours.Electronic media exposure was noted in 83 (83%) children.Of them, 27 (32.5%)children were exposed to ≥1 hour/day.There was no significant difference in sleep duration, night awakenings, or wakefulness between media-exposed and media-unexposed groups in children.Similarly, there was no significant effect of media exposure on sleep characteristics.Conclusion: Sleep duration in infants and toddlers was below the international recommendation.A majority of children had exposure to electronic media, and one-third had exposure of at least 1 hour.Approximately three-fourths of parents didn't perceive the child's sleep problems.Clinical significance: There is an urgent need to routinely evaluate sleep characteristics in infants and toddlers and to increase awareness of sleep hygiene and media exposure among parents.