Researchers from the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) published last week a longitudinal cohort study conducted between families (parents and children) when their children were 8 to 10 and 12/13 years old: they wanted to relate experiences as victims of bullying, with the parasomnias suffered during the Secondary Stake.
As we read here the "parasomnias" with episodes of movements and behaviors of an abnormal and involuntary nature that occur during a person's sleep, and are quite frequent during childhood. They may be related to other sleep disorders like sleepwalking, night terrors, nightmares or bruxism.
The result of the research has been published in Pediatrics, and Dr. Suzet Tanya Lereya (one of the coordinators of the study) of the Department of Psychology of the aforementioned University, believes that stress is the mechanism that allows association between bullying and parasomnias.
It is also considered that children who are harassed by their classmates at school, may be at greater risk of having frequent nightmares, episodes of night terrors is even sleepwalking
It seems that nightmares are likely to occur when anxiety exceeds a threshold, and several experts suggest that if this happens, parasomnias could be frequent. The authors recommend reviewing the children's school history, exploring a possible bullying suffered in the past, when schoolchildren aged 12/13 suffer from parasomnias frequently. In this way help can be better routed.
It is not the first time that the relationship between bullying and mental or physical health problems is studied, this time we are also talking about a incorrect development of sleep episodes, which could later influence academic performance.
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