Effects on parents of an intervention to resolve infant behavioral sleep problems.

Abstract

PURPOSE: Because behavioral sleep problems affect a large proportion of infants and can result in health issues for children and their parents, the study evaluated the effects of a sleep intervention for infants from 6 to 12 months old. METHOD: For this quasi-experimental one group pre-test and post-test design, 39 eligible families were recruited through a newborn hotline. Seventy parents with healthy 6 to 12-month old infants completed the intervention. The intervention involved information about infant sleep and strategies for sleep problems in classes of up to 6 couples, chart completion, and bi-weekly telephone calls for 2 weeks. The primary outcome measures were parents' sleep quality, fatigue, cognitions about infant sleep, depression, marital harmony, and sleepiness. FINDINGS: Following the intervention, there was a significant improvement in parents' sleep quality, cognitions about infant sleep, fatigue, and depressed mood. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings demonstrated that providing parents with information and support to assist with infant behavioral sleep problems can improve parental psychological well being.