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In modern society, children typically spend most of their time indoors. In large crowded cities, children are usually permitted to play in their house or are sent to a structured program facility because of the lack of safe playgrounds and parental worries about safety.1,2 This has reduced the opportunity for children to experience outdoor activities and reduced the amount of time spent staying in touch with nature. Moreover, children become unwilling to choose free outdoor play, which usually occurs in natural settings. In addition, children can easily access TV, video games, or personal computers as a result of the influence of increasing modern technology and media exposure.2 Playing indoors with various mobile electronic devices has also been considered a new problem in children due to the effects on cognitive and emotional development, physical health, and obesity.3-8 In recent years, interest in the positive effects on children of spending time outdoors or in a natural environment setting has grown. Allowing children to play in a natural environment is currently considered to be important and related to better physical health and cognitive development. A “forest kindergarten” was developed in Europe9 as a new type of facility that encourages a child’s experiences of the outdoors. This is a special type of nursery located in forested areas where children spend their time whilst outdoors.10,11 Many studies have demonstrated Received: December 4, 2014 Revised: January 9, 2015 Accepted: January 9, 2015

Background and Objective Children’s sleep habits are important for their health and development. Here, we investigated the relationship between sleep habits, behavior, personality, and social responsiveness in children. Methods A total of 38 preschool children were assessed using the Korean Child Behavior Checklist (K-CBCL), Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI), Children’s Sleep Habit Questionnaire (CSHQ), and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Results Harm avoidance according to JTCI was positively correlated with bedtime resistance (r = 0.34; p = 0.04) and sleep anxiety on the CSHQ (r = 0.43; p < 0.01). Emotional lability on the K-CBCL was significantly associated with parasomnias (r = 0.38; p = 0.02), while lower social cognition and social communication scores on the SRS were associated with sleep anxiety (r = −0.34; p = 0.03) and parasomnias (r = −0.38; p = 0.01). Path analysis showed that among the JTCI subscales, both harm avoidance and persistence were significantly associated with social cognition. Conclusions Clinicians should pay particular attention to psychological components as potential contributors to sleep habits when managing sleep problems in preschool children.