A new study has found a correlation between child sleep disturbances and parenting behaviors around bedtime. Behaviors of parents at bedtime appeared to be associated with childhood sleep disturbances.
The study consisted of 987 parents of 5-month old children. The parents filled out questionnaires at the beginning of the study and every year after, until the child reached 6 years of age. Questions focused on the child’s sleeping habits, disturbances during sleep (such as bad dreams and delays in falling asleep), and psychological and socio-demographic factors.
“Early (ages 5 to 17 months) sleep disturbances predicted maladaptive parenting behaviors (e.g., mother present at sleep onset, giving food/drink after child awakens) at ages 29 and 41 months,” write the authors.
Some parental behaviors predicted future bad dreams, total sleep time of less than 10 hours per night and trouble falling asleep. Children co-sleeping with parents was associated with delays in returning to sleep of 15 minutes or more.
“Our findings clarify the long-debated relationship between parental behaviors and childhood sleep disturbances,” conclude the authors.
The study was published in the April issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
