title: To sleep or not to sleep: a repeated daily challenge for African American children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sleep is important for children, because of the impact on their development and well-being. Previous survey research suggested that poor sleep occurs more frequently in minorities. However, objective data characterizing their sleep patterns are lacking.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children enrolled in a 1-year cross-sectional sequence designed study centered on a 14-day objective sleep recording, which was repeated three times. Children lived on the South Side of Chicago and were self-defined as being African Americans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings reflect data of 24 children with a mean age of 5.4 ± 1.7 years of which 54.2% were girls. They slept at night 6.51 h and during the day changeably 1.42 h, likely being noon naps during the week and afternoon naps on Saturday and Sunday. Variability in quality of sleep, and also nighttime sleep duration, especially on Friday and Saturday, was characteristic. The highest variability was noted in sleep onset and offset latency, and in the quality of napping. The interrelation of daytime and nighttime sleep changes was suggestive of "catch-up" daytime sleep.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  At nighttime children habitually obtained few hours of sleep with diurnal sleep fluctuations likely being "a need" and "a chance." Interventions might emphasize on creating optimal opportunities to sleep.
authors.affiliation: Rett Expertise Centre - Governor Kremers Centre, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium; Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Shanghai Children's Medical Center affiliated with Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Spruyt
authors.forename: Calista U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Alaribe
authors.forename: Odochi U
authors.initials: OU
authors.lastname: Nwabara
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D001741:Black or African American; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017440:Photoperiod; D012890:Sleep
keywords: Actigraphy; African American; Child; Longitudinal; Nap; Sleep