Infant sleep: a review of normative and problematic sleep and interventions

Middlemiss, Wendy

doi:10.1080/0300443032000153516

Cited by 24 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…During the first month of infancy, most infants awaken every 3-4 hours and require caregivers to settle them back to sleep (Middlemiss, 2004;Wolfson et al, 1992). These frequent night-wakings, which impact the duration of night sleep, tend to reduce in frequency during the first year (Goodlin-Jones & Anders, 2004).…”

Section: Infant Sleep and Parental Psychological Functioningmentioning

confidence: 97%

Infant Sleep and the Quality of Family Life for First-Time Parents of Three-Month-Old Infants

Loutzenhiser¹,

Sevigny²

2008

Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Me

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While it is widely recognized that sleep patterns in early infancy can affect the quality of family life, studies have focused primarily on sleep problems that emerge in later infancy. Further, researchers have tended to conceptualize the quality of family life primarily in terms of the psychological functioning of the mother and have thus ignored the experiences of fathers. Grounded in a family systems framework, this study explores the relationship between nighttime infant sleep duration, infant negativity, psychological and relational functioning in first-time parents of three-month-old infants. Infant sleep duration was significantly associated with father's reports of parenting stress, family functioning and infant negativity. Infant sleep duration was related to fathers' psychological functioning with fathers whose infants slept for shorter periods reporting higher levels of distress than fathers whose infants slept for longer periods of time. Contrary to expectations, neither mothers' psychological functioning, nor mothers' or fathers' ratings of relational functioning were significantly associated with infant sleep duration. These results highlight the importance of studying the influences of normal infant behaviors on new parents and of expanding the study of early infant development beyond a focus on the mother-child dyad.

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Section: Infant Sleep and Parental Psychological Functioningmentioning

confidence: 97%

Infant Sleep and the Quality of Family Life for First-Time Parents of Three-Month-Old Infants

Loutzenhiser¹,

Sevigny²

2008

Fathering: A Journal of Theory, Research, and Practice about Me

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“…The body of research examining sleep arrangements, sleep disruption, and child outcomes is growing (for comprehensive reviews, see Goldberg & Keller, 2007;Middlemiss, 2004), but it is complicated by definitional issues and inconsistent terminology. Although solitary sleepers have been consistently defined as infants who sleep alone in their own room (Ball, 2003;Javo, Ronning, & Heyerdahl, 2004;Keller & Goldberg, 2004;Rothrauff, Middlemiss, & Jacobson, 2004), shared sleep can exist along a wide spectrum in terms of duration, degree of proximity, and degree of physical contact between parent and infant (Goldberg & Keller, 2007;McKenna & Volpe, 2007).…”

Section: Sleep Arrangementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep arrangements and maternal adaptation in infancy

Countermine

Teti

2010

Infant Mental Health Journal

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Among the many decisions that parents make regarding child-rearing practices, an important one involves sleep arrangements. Little is known about the relationship between chosen sleep arrangements, parents' adaptation to these choices, parental sleep quality, spousal support, and parental distress. Forty-five mothers and fathers with infants 1 to 24 months old completed measures of parental attitudes and practices regarding sleep arrangements. Shared sleep with one's infant was associated with poorer parental adaptation to infant sleep disruption, and this was true even when parents endorsed the practice of sharing sleep with their infants. Among mothers, shared sleep and poorer adaptation to infant sleep were significantly associated with elevated depressive symptoms, poorer sleep quality, and spousal criticism directed to mothers about where the infant slept during the night. For mothers, criticism from their spouses about where the baby slept, mothers' sleep quality, and depressive symptoms mediated the link between sleep arrangements and maternal adaptation. Results emphasize the importance of taking into account individual differences in the quality of parents' adaptation to infant sleep behavior, a construct largely ignored in the child sleep literature to date, in understanding linkages between infant sleep quality and infant-parent outcomes.

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“…Despite the fact that, historically, the practice of co-sleeping was the norm, as it remains in most non-Westernized cultures (e.g., Ball, Hooker, & Kelly, 1999;Latz et al, 1999), researchers in opposition to co-sleeping have proposed concerns that this practice may hinder the development of infants' independence and lead to the development of sleeping patterns that are hard to change when parents want their child to move to a solitary sleeping arrangement (for a review, see Middlemiss, 2004). Others have shown that co-sleeping as a means of managing problematic sleep (i.e., reactive co-sleeping) tends to exacerbate childhood sleep problems (Lozoff, Wolf, & Davis, 1984;Madansky & Edelbrock, 1990;Zuckerman, Stevenson, & Bailey, 1987).…”

Section: Review Of the Literature On Correlates Of Infant Co-sleepingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistency in infant sleeping arrangements and mother–infant interaction

Taylor

Donovan

Leavitt

2008

Infant Mental Health Journal

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This study examined the association between infant sleeping arrangements (i.e., habitual co-sleeping, inconsistent co-sleeping, and non-co-sleeping) and quality of mother-infant interaction during play in a sample of mothers, each with a typically developing infant (N=70). Mother-infant dyads who experienced consistency in infant sleeping arrangements in a typical week at 6 months (i.e., habitual co-sleeping or non-co-sleeping) were characterized by more positive maternal and infant behavior and dyadic quality of interaction at 9 months compared with dyads who experienced inconsistency in sleeping arrangements. Additionally, a greater amount of co-sleeping per week was associated with an increased duration of breastfeeding, mothers working fewer hours, less infant temperamental intensity, and less maternal depression. This study underscores the advantages of empirically based studies that consider consistency in infant sleep experience as a factor that is associated with more positive mother-child interaction.

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Infant sleep: a review of normative and problematic sleep and interventions

Cited by 24 publications

References 118 publications

Infant Sleep and the Quality of Family Life for First-Time Parents of Three-Month-Old Infants

Infant Sleep and the Quality of Family Life for First-Time Parents of Three-Month-Old Infants

Sleep arrangements and maternal adaptation in infancy

Consistency in infant sleeping arrangements and mother–infant interaction

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