LAUSR

### What you need to know About 20-30% of parents and caregivers (hereafter referred to as parents) in the developed world report that their children have insomnia (difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep).1234 Reliable data from developing countries is lacking, but adult data suggests that insomnia is a global phenomenon.5 Children born this millennium are likely to sleep for around 70 minutes less each night than generations born 100 years ago.6 Insomnia in children is a public health concern, because short sleep is associated with multiple adverse outcomes (table 1). Numerous meta-analyses confirm the link between short sleep and childhood obesity,131415 behavioural problems,7 and poor school performance.11 A population based prospective cohort study has also associated sleep disturbance after 2 years of age with reduced grey matter volume at 7 years old.19 View this table: Table 1 Adverse outcomes associated with short sleep in children The effect on parents is also important. As little as one week of sleep disruption in children affects parents’ mood, emotional regulation, and decision making, and it can take months or years for them to seek help.2021 Parents are generally understanding when a child has short-lived or acute insomnia, such as after a period of illness or the birth of a sibling. However, when insomnia is chronic (defined as occurring for ≥3 nights a week for ≥3 …