All issues > Volume 18(1); 1975

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1975;18(1):29-39. Published online January 31, 1975.

Study on the Relationship between the Sleeping Posture and Head Form

Soo Young Whang¹

¹Department of Pediattics Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul,Korea

Abstract

Davenport (1963) found that 87% of the human skull growth came in the first two years of life, a time also associated with a very rapid growth of the nervous system. Among the many indices used to measure head form the lengh-breadth cephalic index is the most widely used index. Although head form is determined mainly by heredity, other factors such as temperature and sleeping posture have been considered. Hrdlicka (1908),Bean et al (1923), Bayley (1936), Ra (1968), Baum et al (1971) have all reported flattening of the occiput :secondary to use of the cradle board or to the supine posture during sleep. However, there have not been any studies which evaluate different infant sleeping postures as to theis effect on head form. Such is the purpose of this study. Infants from higher social class families which were seen in the Severance Hospital well-baby clinic were used for the study group. The head lenght and breadth were measured and the cephalic index calculated by the cross-sectional method. The subsequent effect of sleeping posture habits developed in infancy were studied in seven year old children. An attempt was made to find a correlation between I.Q. and the cephalic index in the seven year olds. The following conclusions are summerized below: .I) Stomach sleepers have an increase in head length, and back sleepers an increase in head width under the 2 year group. The decrease in cephlic index in male stomach sleepers is caused by the increase in head length and the decrease in cephalic index in female stomach sleepers is secondary to increasing head length and decreasing head width. 22) Under the 2 year group, there is Statistically significant difference in cephalic index related to sleeping posture. 3) Among the 7 year old children there is a statistically significant difference in cephalic index to sleeping posture. 4) There was no correlation between the cephalic index and the 7 year old child’s I.Q. In conclusion, this study demonstrates changes in head form, as measured by the cephalic index, secondary to the child’s sleeping posture form infancy through the 7th year. As there is an increase in Korean children sleeping in the prone position there will be an decrease in cephalic index in the future head form in Korean children. This change is believed to be related to the sleeping posture at infancy.

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