Psychology Program, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA; Institute for Fiscal Studies, UK.
Infant Behav Dev. 2020 May;59:101426. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101426. Epub 2020 Mar 19.
This study aimed to understand how different mother-infant sleeping arrangements impact infants' self-regulation, particularly their calming response. Thus this study investigated the effect of three prevalent mother-infant sleeping arrangements, co-sleeping (CS), sleeping beyond arm's length from their mother (BAL), and solitary sleeping (SS), on infants' physiological calming through self-regulation during a nap session in 24 infants (50% female, M = 1.85 months SD = 0.93 months), who were identified as either regular co-sleepers with their mothers, infants who slept in the BAL sleeping arrangement from their mother, and infants who are solitary sleepers (SS). The effect of all three sleeping conditions amongst all the three types of infants with different habitual sleeping arrangements was assessed. All infants spent 10 min (2 × 5 min sessions) in each sleeping condition (CS, BAL, SS) during which electrocardiographic recordings were collected to obtain interbeat intervals (IBI) and rMSSD, a measure of heart rate variability (HRV) an index of physiological calming, maintained by the parasympathetic pathway involved in self-regulation. Infants who regularly co-slept with their mothers had the highest IBI, indicating greater physiological calming and self-regulation across all sleeping arrangement conditions (CS, BAL, SS), followed by infants who regularly slept in the BAL sleeping arrangement from their mothers. IBI was lowest amongst regular solitary sleepers, potentially indicating physiological stress due to mother-infant separation. However, HRV indices during the sleeping arrangements (especially across regular solitary sleepers) were inconclusive as to whether the lack of change in HRV across all sleeping conditions was due to physiological stress responses or greater physiological regulation. This study is the first to investigate the effect of manipulated and habitual mother-infant sleeping arrangements on infant physiological calming.
本研究旨在了解不同的母婴睡眠安排如何影响婴儿的自我调节能力，特别是他们的镇静反应。因此，本研究通过 24 名婴儿（50%为女性，M=1.85 个月，SD=0.93 个月）在午睡期间的自我调节，调查了三种常见的母婴睡眠安排（同睡、与母亲保持手臂距离的睡眠、单独睡眠）对婴儿生理镇静的影响，这些婴儿被确定为与母亲同睡的常规同睡者、与母亲保持手臂距离睡眠的婴儿和单独睡眠的婴儿。评估了所有三种睡眠条件对具有不同习惯性睡眠安排的所有三种类型婴儿的影响。所有婴儿在每种睡眠条件（CS、BAL、SS）下各睡 10 分钟（2×5 分钟），在此期间收集心电图记录以获得心率间隔（IBI）和 rMSSD，rMSSD 是心率变异性（HRV）的一种衡量指标，也是自我调节所涉及的副交感神经通路维持生理镇静的指标。与母亲常规同睡的婴儿的 IBI 最高，表明在所有睡眠安排条件（CS、BAL、SS）下都有更高的生理镇静和自我调节能力，其次是与母亲常规保持手臂距离睡眠的婴儿。与母亲常规单独睡眠的婴儿的 IBI 最低，这可能表明由于母婴分离而导致生理压力。然而，睡眠安排期间的 HRV 指数（特别是在常规单独睡眠者中）并不能确定 HRV 在所有睡眠条件下不变是由于生理应激反应还是更大的生理调节。本研究首次调查了人为和习惯性母婴睡眠安排对婴儿生理镇静的影响。
