Snoring toddlers 'more likely to be unruly in later years'

Jonathan Warren

Author: Jonathan Warren

28.03.2024

Sleep

93386362Is your son or daughter snoring in their children's bed during their early years? It may be worth seeking help to deal with the situation, if new research is to be believed. That's because the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York published a report in the US journal Pediatrics that discovered a link between early snorers and poor behaviour later in life. Researchers claimed that the developing brains of younger children can be heavily influenced by the likes of mouth breathing, snoring and sleep apnoea, which they concluded after looking at the lives of over 11,000 British children from birth to the age of seven. Children who had breathing problems during rest that peaked at two-and-a-half years old displayed the most problematic behaviour when reaching school age, and were almost twice as likely to be hyperactive. They were almost two-thirds (60 per cent) more likely to have problems with conduct, too. Karen Bonuck, an epidemiologist at the institution leading the study, said: "Just think about the brain's rapid development in the early years, the need to reset itself at night, and the lack of oxygen and excess carbon dioxide that quite possibly could result from sleep-disordered breathing."