Sleep practices and habits in children across different cultures

Sleep characteristics in children vary not only with age but also with ethnic and socio-cultural influences. In fact, lifestyle issues, as well as cultural beliefs and family values, might influence sleep too. Cultural differences are not random events, they occur because cultures with different geographies, climates, economies, religious, and histories exerting unique influences.Most works looking at influences on children sleep development have tended to focus on individual factors in children and their parents, family interactions and the impact of socio-demographic factors. Nevertheless, cultural factors are vitally important in creating the context within which different, more proximal factors interact to affect a child’s health, development, and well-being. Thus, child sleep development is the result of complex interrelationship of biological, psychological, environmental and social influences, the relative contributions of which are often difficult to separate. Variability among cultures concerning sleep-patterning expectations and interpretations is enormous and it can be found for almost any preference or norm its opposite in some other cultural settingsFurthermore, in recent years, we have witnessed to dramatic demographic changes in many countries, consequently health professionals and pediatricians have been confronted with family of widely differing cultural origins. A growing literature is documenting differences between ethnic groups in child-rearing values, beliefs and goals (7). Thus, it becomes more important in evaluating etiologic factors and planning interventions for the individual child and the family to incorporate the pediatric sleep disorders in the specific cultural context. This chapter will try to provide an overview of some specific sleep issues that are highly influenced by the cultural context based on the review of previous epidemiological surveys carried out in different sociocultural contexts.