Parents - Parents with infants report poor sleep

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Parents with infants report poor sleep

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggests parental adaptation to infant sleep is poorer when infants spend part of the night with their parents.

Pennsylvania State University researcher Molly Coutermine studied 45 families with infants between 1 and 24 months old. Parents completed measures of parental cognition about infant sleep, and attitudes and practices regarding sleep arrangements.

The study's findings showed adaptation scores of both fathers and mothers were highly correlated. Parents whose infants spent any time with them at night had poorer adaptation scores that did parents who slept separately from their infants.

Parents with more lenient attitudes toward bed sharing spent more time with their infants at night than did parents with less lenient attitudes. But Countermine, a graduate student in human development and family studies, said the study found more lenient attitudes toward bed sharing were associated with poorer adaptation in both mothers and fathers.

"In a culture that is typically not accustomed to co-sleeping, parents who choose to co-sleep for their child's well-being may be doing so at their own expense," said Countermine.

The research was presented last week in Baltimore during the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 06/19/2008

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