Introduction: Sleep disorders and inadequate sleep have devastating effects on cognitive development, morality, attention and behaviour, health and overall quality of life. It also increases the risk of physical and mental illness. One of the roles of the nurse is prevention at the primary level. ; Therefore, the pediatric nurse can prevent the occurrence of physical, mental and economic complications by screening for sleep problems and taking timely action. Therefore, in this study, the effect of teaching behavioural interventions to parents on school-age children's sleep problems has been investigated.
Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, after approval by the ethics and initial screening committee using the BEARS questionnaire, students in 22 districts of Tehran were randomly divided into 86 intervention and control groups and sleep hygiene education was given to parents in one session. Then the parents implemented the training for 4 weeks and wrote it in the daily registration table. Then the questionnaire was completed by the parents and the results were compared using paired t-test and independent t-test.
Results :
The results of the study before the intervention showed that the units in both groups were not statistically significant and homogeneous in terms of demographic variables and questions of the first part of the questionnaire.
The biggest problems were related to irregularities in sleep hours and lack of sleep hours in both groups. An Independent t-test four weeks after the intervention showed a significant difference between the two groups. P-value <0.001))
Discussion and conclusion
Due to the importance of the concept of sleep in nursing, especially in pediatric nursing, it is suggested that this topic be included as a principle of sleep hygiene at different ages in continuing nursing education programs.
Also, if the position of the school nurse is established, providing sleep health education programs should be considered an essential part of education for children and parents.