Avaliação do sono de crianças prematuras egressas da unidade neonatal

Abstract

Sleep is a physiological and behavioral function that changes drastically as growth and development. Children who born premature and need special care they are sent to neonatal units. The fast growth of children, in a way, interferes in the construction of a regular pattern sleep, being important its evaluation and orientation. The objective was to characterize the sleep of premature children who are discharged from the neonatal unit in the perception of parents/caregivers. The study is descriptive, it was developed at the Pediatrics Specialized Ambulatory of Walter Cantídio University Hospital, in the city of Fortaleza-CE from April to June, 2018. The study had a sample of 14 caregivers and 14 children, who they were selected for convenience. A semi-structured form with maternal and neonatal variables was applied, focusing on the children nocturnal sleep. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and it presented by tables. The Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Ceara, CAEE 80074017.6.0000.5054, approved the project. The results were: all caregivers were female, with a mean age of 25.78 years and the majority of Fortaleza (68.28%). For children, most of them were chronological age of 13 to 18 months; they were male and born with gestational age of 31 to 34 weeks and 6 days. The birth weightranged from 1485 to 2426 grams, with a mean of 1962, 46grams. All children were hospitalized at some point in the Kangoroo Neonatal Intermediate Care Unit, 11 (50%) were discharged from the NICU. All children in the study population had daytime naps, most of them (71.42%) slept between 7:00 p.m. and 10:29 p. m., and 57.14% woke up between 5:30 a.m. and 7:59 a.m. As for the children sleep total duration, 71.42% slept from 8 to 10 hours per night. Most of the children at bedtime, shared the bed with their mother/parents and 78.57% had 1 to 2 awakenings per night. Breastfeeding was the main cause of nocturnal awakening in children (57.14%). It is concluded that a more detailed investigation into the sleep habits of premature children allows a better orientation and intervention to improve their sleep patterns. Different aspects ca be decisive in constructing a healthy sleep-wake cycle that involves behaviors of the whole family as well as the environment, not just the infant aspects.