Quarrel parents cause sleep disturbance in children

In children whose mom and dad often quarrel, there may be conduct disorder because parental conflict disrupts the normal sleep.

American scientists have discovered that the more the parents fight in front of the kids, the worse the kids are asleep. And when the child tries unsuccessfully to fall asleep, and then wakes up and is forced to stay awake due to noise or sleep troubled sleep, this in turn affects his behavior and learning ability.

It has long been observed that children growing up in conflict families are more prone to behavioral disorders, but the exact cause was unknown. Research conducted by Auburn University in Alabama and brown University in Rhode island, suggests that the impact of conflict on sleep and sleep disorders have serious negative consequences. The researchers assessed sleep and its course in 54 healthy children aged 5 to 9 years, none of which were not previously observed sleep disorders.

The average level of quarrels between their parents were labeled as "normal", although in some cases hassle could sometimes flow in noisy scandals. The researchers measured the level of conflict and evaluated the sleep status of children through surveys of parents and children. Children during sleep over the weeks wore actigraph, device, like a watch that detects movement. Researchers found that children in highly conflicted families went to bed around the same time as other children, but sleeping less and not so good. The more parental fights — the less the children slept, the less time spent in bed and much more moving — for example, tossing from side to side and fidgeted. Children from such families complained of drowsiness during the day.

The relationship between family quarrels and dream were revealed to a greater extent on a study of children's stories about the fights mom and dad, and not through conversations with parents. Children who believed that their parents fight frequently, and conflicts are often tense and unresolved, suffered the most severe sleep disorders. Mona El-Sheikh, a leading researcher in Auburn University, said that the study showed the side effects of even relatively moderate family quarrels. "The data collected suggest that even in families with normal levels of conflict in parental strife can disrupt children's sleep, she said. — This is important because even a slight reduction in sleep can cause attention deficit disorder, by disrupting the processes of information processing, lower motivation, enhance irritability and reduced emotional control."

Despite the fact that the level of conflict in the families of the subjects were normal and inevitable, she added, the study points to the importance of how the conflict was resolved in the family. "These data suggest that it is very important how parents handle the conflict and how they help children to understand and cope with what happened."

On the second study, like the first, reported in the journal Child Development. It says that the shock of a quarrel of parents persists the child immediately, and stored for some time. Scientists have found that the elucidation of the relationship in full view of children and even incidents in which the parents ignore each other, develop in children negative thoughts about the family who can not leave the children for a year or more. The third study on this subject revealed the relationship between daily parental disputes and how protected the child is feeling.

Source: ecowars.tv/