Temperament and sleep–wake behaviour from infancy to toddlerhood

Abstract

Sleep-wake behaviors and temperament were examined longitudinally for trait stability and relationship to behavioral state regulation from infancy to early childhood. Subjects were 120 low-risk, full-term infants from a middle class sample. At 6 weeks, parents completed 3 consecutive days of the Baby’s Day Diary which measures sleep, wake, fuss, feed and cry states and the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire. At 16 months, parents assessed sleep behaviors with the Sleep Habits Inventory and temperament with the Toddler Symptom Checklist. At 24 months, parents repeated 3 days of the Baby’s Day Diary. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine cross-age hypotheses for sleep-wake and temperament associations. From early infancy to toddlerhood, sleep-wake behaviors and irritable temperament were notably stable but independent in this cohort.

Parent-reported early sleep problems and internalising, externalising and dysregulation symptoms in toddlers

“…In other words, individual variability in sleep-wake behaviour problems has been linked to affect and emotions through hypothesised shared central nervous system to sleep and the neurobehavioural systems underlying arousal and emotions 31 32. In accordance with this assumption, difficult temperament33 and genetic factors34 are related to both sleeping and emotional problems in children. Second, sleep and emotional problems may be explained by the same environmental factors.…”

Timing of complementary feeding and associations with maternal and infant characteristics: A Norwegian cross-sectional study

“…The use of self-reported data may reduce their reliability of our findings and may be particularly problematic for weight-related indicators. Both sleep-wake behaviors and temperament are known to be notably stable behavioral characteristics from infancy to toddlerhood [ 77 ]. Nevertheless, the retrospective collection of data may have affected the results regarding infant temperament and sleeping difficulties.…”

Beliefs About Infant Regulation, Early Infant Behaviors and Maternal Postnatal Depressive Symptoms

“…There exists, however, considerable variation in infant regulation that manifests in crying, feeding, settling, and sleeping behaviors . Although some infants quickly regulate, others take longer to achieve regulation of sleeping and feeding patterns such that they are more predictable for parents and therefore less demanding . For mothers, the period of early adjustment is commonly a physically demanding time in which their own sleep and feeding rhythms are disrupted .…”