Non-awakening in children in response to a smoke detector alarm

The extent to which children will awaken to a smoke detector alarm in the standard hallway location has not previously been investigated. Twenty juniors aged 6-17 yr and their parents (aged 30-59 yr) participated. Sleeping participants were exposed, on two different nights in their own homes, to an alarm which was received at 60 dBA at the pillow. Sleep/wake behaviour was determined objectively using wrist actigraphy and confirmed by self-report questionnaires, which also asked about levels of clearheadedness and sleepiness. It was found that 17 of the 20 juniors (85%) slept through one or both of the alarm presentations, while 100% of the adults reliably awoke. Where a participant awoke, almost all (95%) awoke within 32 seconds of alarm activation. On average those who awoke reported feeling moderately clearheaded straight away and continued to improve. Further research is called for to determine whether children will awaken to a louder alarm signal (e.g. 85 dBA) being received at the pillow. In the absence of data demonstrating this, the best recommendation may be to install interconnected detectors and alarms in residential dwellings so that adults can be awoken if a fire occurs in or near children's bedrooms. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.