College of Medicine researchers study disparities in childhood insomnia and sleep health

Findings by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine underscore the need to identify insomnia early in childhood and intervene with treatment that’s age-appropriate.

“Insomnia is a public health problem,” said Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral health and senior author of the study recently published in SLEEP. “We’ve identified that more people than we thought have childhood-onset insomnia where symptoms start in childhood and remain chronic all the way through young adulthood.”

The research team also found that persistent symptoms of insomnia beginning in childhood may disproportionately affect children and teenagers from racial and ethnic minority groups.

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