Objective To investigate the sleep status and emotional-behavioral problems among preschool children in Yanping District of Nanping City in Fujian Province, and analyze the correlation between sleep status and emotional-behavioral problems.

Methods A total of 500 preschool children were selected as subjects of this study. The Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were used to evaluate the sleep status and emotional-behavioral problems of the children. Additionally, general information about the children was collected. Comparisons were made between children with different demographic and sociological characteristics in terms of their sleep status and emotional-behavioral problems, and the correlations between sleep status and emotional-behavioral problems were analyzed.

Results The detection rates of sleep disorders and emotional-behavioral problems among preschool children were 15.00% and 14.80% respectively. The detection rate of emotional-behavioral problems was significantly higher in boys than in girls (P < 0.05). No significant differences were found in the detection rates of sleep disorders and emotional-behavioral problems among children of different ages, birth weights, whether they were only children, birth methods, whether they were premature, maternal pregnancy ages, father's education level, sleep environments, or co-sleeping situations (P>0.05). Both the detection rates of sleep disorders and emotional-behavioral problems significantly decreased with the improvement of mother's education level and increased with the increase in daily screen exposure time (P < 0.05). Compared with children with normal/borderline scores on each dimension (conduct problems, peer problems, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, prosocial behavior) and total scores of SDQ, children with abnormal scores on each dimension and total scores had significantly higher incidences of sleep disorders (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that sleep disorders were the risk factors for the scores of occurrence of conduct problems, peer problems, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity, prosocial behavior, and abnormal total difficulties scores among preschool children (P < 0.05).

Conclusion The overall sleep status of preschool children in Yanping District of Nanping City is relatively good, but there are still many sleep problems. Sleep disorders can increase the risk of emotional-behavioral problems in children, and excessive screen exposure may increase the risk of sleep disorders and emotional-behavioral problems in children.