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

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.