Abstract :
Sleep is an essential indicator of overall health, physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development, especially in children and adolescents. Studies used the sleep domains Bedtime Resistance, Sleep Onset Delay, Sleep Duration, Sleep Anxiety, Night Waking, Parasomnias, Sleep-Disordered Breathing, and Daytime Sleepiness as a tool to explore the disparities in gender and age. A cross-sectional study for children aged 1-11 years held in the pediatric outpatient clinic at Maternity and Children Hospital, Tabuk City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study used a structured. A questionnaire of the children's sleep habits was distributed to the parents via one-to-one interview while recalling their child's behavior for the recent week's sleep pattern. 184 children were enrolled; male and female children were 54.4% and 46.6%, respectively. The three age groups are toddler, age 1 to 3 years (16.3%); pre-school, age 4 to 5 years (22.3%); and primary school, age 6 to 11 years (61.4%). The study showed clinical significance with P <0.01 for age and sex in sleep duration, total sleep-related difficulties, bedtime resistance, and parasomnia. However, there was a clinical significance in age but not sex when waking after 5 a.m. There is no significant difference in sleep onset delay, sleep-disordered breathing, and night walking for both genders and ages. This study concluded that variable rates of sleep patterns and problems among children are due to multiple intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as developmental progress concerning each gender- and group and the potential socioeconomic and lifestyle surrounding the child. Parental awareness of standard sleep patterns and related problems may provide ideal guidance in healthy sleep. Future studies are warranted to replicate these classes and to identify associated factors with each class.