Society & Culture - Posted by A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 10:36 - 3 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5) Loading ...Emotional cues are key to baby sleep
"Sleep is a context about which we know little," says Douglas Teti. "It can be a very emotionally charged period for parents and babies." (Credit: iStockphoto)
PENN STATE (US)—Parents understand the challenge of getting infants to sleep through the night, and now researchers show that being emotionally receptive can reduce sleep disruptions and help infants and toddlers sleep better.
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“Bed time can be a very emotional time. It heralds the longest separation of the day for most infants,” says Douglas Teti, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State.
“It struck me that going to sleep, and sleeping well, is much easier for some young children than others, and I wanted to assess what factored into this, and what parents and children contribute to sleep patterns.”
In the study, which examined mothers’ behaviors during infants’ bedtimes, parents had the most success with their children’s sleep when they responded appropriately to their children’s cues. These include showing disinterest in an activity or simply glancing inquisitively at a parent.
For example, one mother in the study talked quietly and gently to her 6-month-old infant while breastfeeding.
“She continuously gazed at the infant’s face and, whenever the infant vocalized, she responded promptly (e.g., ‘It’s okay.’),” the authors report in a recent issue of the Journal of Family Psychology.
In contrast, a different mother in the study “used stern directives with her 24-month-old during book-reading whenever the child got up out of bed,” and “continually attempted to engage the child in the book despite clear signs that the child was losing interest (e.g., child was fidgety and continually turned his attention elsewhere),” the authors note.
The result: “the child got up and left the room four times before he eventually fell asleep.”
When parents provide reassurance through emotional communication, Teti and his colleagues believe that it lets children know they are in a safe environment.
“Emotions are the most basic form of communication between babies and parents,” Teti says.
This study was one of the first to use direct observation of infant sleep patterns, and is the first to use multiple video cameras in the infants’ and parents’ bedrooms to capture parent-infant interactions at night.
Teti’s findings pose new challenges to parents because they suggest that being emotionally available—paying attention to cues and responding to children appropriately—is more effective than a specific bedtime behavior in promoting better sleep.
The researchers found no significant relation between sleep disruptions and the amount of time parents spent in close contact with infants or involved in quiet activities before bedtime.
This contradicts past research, which had suggested that prolonged close physical contact with a parent undermines babies’ ability to sleep on their own.
“Sleep is a context about which we know little,” said Teti. “It can be a very emotionally charged period for parents and babies. Looking at parent-child interactions in this context could be more telling for childhood outcomes than what you see in a more structured daytime play session.”
Many existing studies of parenting have focused on controlled play environments, in which researchers have studied parent-child interactions and emotions.
Teti’s study looked at data from 35 families, and he sees very similar results in an ongoing longitudinal study, which is a more in-depth analysis of factors promoting infant sleep as infants age, from 1 to 24 months. The longitudinal study is funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
One of the next steps will be to examine links between infants’ temperamental styles, parenting at bedtime and during the night, sleep disruptions, and development, according to Teti.
More news from Penn State: http://live.psu.edu/
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3 Comments
KarenSC
enirdlinger
We have two small children in our family, one slept through the night easily and the second not. Same environment and parents. Also, the study, it seems to me looked at how ealily the child went to bed, not whether they slept through the night (as the reporter states).
I don’t think that observing only 35 families with all the variables within and between the families would allow statistically significant conclusions, but tend to reinforce whatever bias the “researchers” had at the start of the study!
DD Grayson
I find the study interesting but the two examples are very bad parallels. It’s a totally different “game” to nurse an infant to sleep vs. helping a 2 y.o. settle down. My twins were champion sleepers until the freedom of toddler beds at 3, then it became much more of a challenge to help them settle down.
this makes a lot of sense to me. When I lose my cool at bedtime, it never helps, only hurts my kids’ ability to go to sleep – even for my 6-yr old. If I let him bounce around the room while I read (he’s listening, but doesn’t always want to sit still), he’ll settle down by the end of reading time and goes to sleep quickly. Goes along well with Dr. Sears attachment parenting – nothing wrong with a lot of contact – the more the better with babies.