A systematic review of treatment of settling problems and night waking in young children

Abstract

ⅷ Objective To assess the efficacy of treatment of settling problems and night waking in young children. ⅷ Design A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of interventions. ⅷ Setting Electronic bibliographic databases and references on identified papers, hand searches, and personal contact with specialists. ⅷ Subjects Children aged 5 years or younger who had established settling problems or night waking. ⅷ Interventions Interventions had to be described and a placebo, waiting list, or another intervention needed to have been used as a comparison. Interventions comprised drug trials or nondrug trials. ⅷ Main outcome measures Number of wakes at night, time to settle, or number of nights in which these problems occurred. ⅷ Results Drugs seemed to be effective in treating night waking in the short term, but long-term efficacy was questionable. In contrast, specific behavioral interventions showed both short-term efficacy and possible longer term effects for dealing with settling problems and night waking. ⅷ Conclusions Given the prevalence and persistence of childhood sleep problems and the effects they can have on children and families, treatments that offer long-lasting benefits are more appealing, and these are likely to be behavioral interventions.

An Integrative Review of Sleep Interventions and Related Clinical Implications for Obesity Treatment in Children

“…In addition, parental response about the usefulness and satisfaction with the written material was positive in both studies (Eckerberg, 2002;Kerr et al, 1996). Moreover, Ramchandani et al (2000) found that additional support through telephone calls did not significantly affect health education about sleep behavior techniques through written material. Overall positive results were seen regardless of how the information was delivered.…”

“…For example, if a child is throwing a tantrum at bedtime in his or her room, the parent does not enter the room. At the end of the interval, the parent briefly enters (i.e., b 15 s) and before leaving provides the child with verbal reassurance (Ramchandani et al, 2000). In their systematic review, Ramchandani et al (2000) assert that interventions that utilized graduated extinction resulted in decreased night awakenings per week.…”

“…At the end of the interval, the parent briefly enters (i.e., b 15 s) and before leaving provides the child with verbal reassurance (Ramchandani et al, 2000). In their systematic review, Ramchandani et al (2000) assert that interventions that utilized graduated extinction resulted in decreased night awakenings per week. Similarly, an intervention that provided parents with written materials describing graduated extinction was also effective in improving sleep in children (Eckerberg, 2002).…”

Descriptive Analysis of Intervention for Parents of Young Children Having Sleep Problems

“…However, different families prefer different sleep management approaches (Hiscock et al, 2008;Ramchandani, Webb, & Stores, 2000), with most parents preferring to remain present during infants' transition to sleep and interested in a gentle approach if it is optional (Galland & Mitchell, 2010).…”

Treatment of sleep problems in families with young children: effects of treatment on family well-being

“…They also tend to persist until later childhood if untreated (7,8). Training a child to fall asleep without parental intervention can solve these sleep problems according to two recent meta-analyses of all the published treatment studies (11,12).…”