Cross-country comparison of parental reports and objective measures of sleep patterns of typically developing children and autistic children between the UK and South Korea.

Researchers compared sleep patterns of children in the UK and South Korea, including both typical children and autistic children. They found that Korean children generally go to bed later, wake up later, and sleep for shorter periods than UK children. However, parents in different countries reported different levels of sleep problems. The study also found that what parents report about their child's sleep often doesn't match what sleep monitors show, suggesting parents and children may view sleep differently.

This cross-cultural study compared sleep patterns in typically developing and autistic children between the UK and South Korea using both objective actigraphy measures and parent reports. Korean children (both typically developing and autistic) demonstrated later bedtimes, later wake times, and shorter nocturnal sleep duration compared to UK children. Parent-reported sleep disturbances were higher in typically developing Korean children versus UK children, but lower in autistic Korean children compared to UK autistic children. Notably, parent reports showed poor correlation with objective measures and child self-reports, highlighting the importance of multi-source data collection.

The findings suggest significant cultural influences on sleep patterns across both neurotypical and autistic populations.

Sleep assessment should incorporate multiple measurement sources rather than relying solely on parent reports. Cultural background should be considered when evaluating sleep patterns in both typically developing and autistic children. Sleep interventions may need cultural adaptation to address different baseline sleep patterns and parental perceptions across populations.

Sample size not reported. Study type unclear. Limited to two countries, reducing generalizability. Cross-sectional design prevents causal conclusions about cultural influences. Underlying factors explaining cultural differences not identified or explored.

Sleep duration and disturbances in typically developing (TD) children have been found to vary across countries. Given the impact of culture on sleep patterns in TD children, it is also necessary to examine the impact of culture on sleep patterns in children with atypical development. However, previous studies have often relied only on parent reports of children's sleep. Hence, the present study conducted a cross-cultural comparison of sleep duration and disturbances of school-aged TD children and autistic children in the UK and South Korea (hereafter Korea) using both subjective and objective sleep measurements.

Cultural differences were observed in both actigraphy measures and parent reports of children's sleep duration and disturbances. Both TD children and autistic children in Korea had a later bedtime, later getting up time and shorter nocturnal sleep duration than their peers in the UK (p < .05). Furthermore, greater parent-reported sleep disturbances were reported in TD children in Korea compared to TD children in the UK and in autistic children in the UK compared to autistic children in Korea. Correlational analyses indicated that most parent-reported measures of children's sleep did not significantly correlate with objective measures and child reports, suggesting that studies on children's sleep can benefit by collecting data from multiple sources.

Taken together, these findings suggest a cultural influence on sleep duration and disturbances of both TD children and autistic children. This study raises questions for further research to identify factors underlying cultural differences in children's sleep duration and disturbances.