Relation between infant sleep, parental stress and co-sleeping at two years of age

Introduction

Parental stress may contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders in children, and lack of sleep may be at the root of the issue. The aim of our study was to assess the association between infant sleep and parental stress, as well as the influence of socioeconomic factors or co-sleeping.d

Material and methods

We conducted a prospective observational study in children aged 2 years. Parents completed three questionnaires: the Parenting Stress Index-4-Short Form (PSI), the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire and a questionnaire that assessed socioeconomic and sleep-related variables.

Results

The sample included 109 families. The median (interquartile range) duration of nighttime sleep, time spent awake at night and sleep onset latency (in minutes) and number of nocturnal awakenings in the children were 500 (447.5–602.5), 15 (5–60); 1 (0–3) and 10 (8–20), respectively. The mean total score in the PSI was 61.1 (SD, 12.3).

The correlation between the PSI total score and the minutes of nighttime sleep was: 0.478 (P = .001), and we found a significant increase in the PSI total score when nighttime sleep duration in the child was less than 540 min, mainly on account of the dysfunctional parent-child interaction and difficult child subscales.

Parental stress was increased significantly with the practice of co-sleeping and with parental age less than 20 years or more than 40 years. Co-sleeping was associated with shorter nighttime sleep duration, more time awake at night and an increased number of nocturnal awakenings.

Conclusions

Decreased infant sleep duration at night caused an increase in parental stress. Likewise, co-sleeping and early or advanced parenthood are associated with a higher level of stress.