Read the 2022 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations for safe infant sleep.
There are many ways to go about sleep training – helping your child learn to fall asleep on her own at bedtime and sleep for longer stretches overnight. Read Erin Chan Ding’s Washington Post article about types and the benefits of sleep training for children and the family.
Get tips to help your baby learn to sleep in a crib.
Learn more about how you can change your own sleep habits using steps often in a toddler’s bedtime routine.
Parents can certainly have difficulty falling and staying asleep even after their young children are sleeping well overnight. Read more about what you can do about those sleepless nights in Jessica Grose’s article and interview with Dr. Shelby Harris at The New York Times.
What’s going on while your baby is sleeping? How does it help development? Find out from the BBC and our expert, Dr. Alice Gregory.
Seven sleep myths – put to bed or still up for debate
Wondering if your toddler is ready to transition to a bed? The New York Times gives some guidance along with Dr. Jodi Mindell.
Social media has a lot of information about sleep aids for children, but very little of it is written by health care professionals.
Read more about how children’s sleep habits have changed during the pandemic.
Dr. Alice Gregory talks to Sarah Cox from Goldsmiths University of London about how the pandemic may be affecting sleep health for adults and children, including some tips to help ease the strain.
Environment and family risk factors impact sleep.
Read more about healthy sleep habits such as getting enough sleep, healthy bedtime habits, and some tips and tricks for an easy bedtime routine on Indian Link by Dr. Vishal Saddi.
Read more about childhood insomnia and how to help, with some great information from Dr. Michael Gradisar.
Listen to experts talk about sleep training myths and truths on NPR.
Societal lack of sleep can be considered a public health crisis. Read this Washington Post article to find out more about the importance of sleep across the lifespan .
Learn more information that may help your family make decisions about room-sharing in this New York Times article.
Did you know that children’s eyes let in more light than adults’ eyes do? Read more here about the importance of a dark evening environment.
Bedtimes, bedtime routines, and sleep spaces vary widely by nation and culture.
Older infants who sleep in their own room tend to sleep better than infants who share a room with their parents.
Child sleep quality is associated with mom’s sleep problems but not necessarily dad’s sleep problems, study finds.
Study suggests that inconsistent childcare arrangements can affect toddlers’ sleep.
Sleep safety – put babies on their backs to sleep.
Room-sharing and sleep outcomes in infancy – read this NPR article to learn more.
Sleep interventions may prevent being overweight in early childhood.
Read about continued racial and ethnic disparities in sudden unexpected infant death in this NPR article.
Early bedtimes are good for kids and moms!
Having social support relates to fewer reports of colicky, fussy babies.
Babies and toddlers tend to get less sleep and have a harder time falling asleep the more touchscreen time they have – but more research is needed to find out why.
Israeli researchers are reporting that even sleeping in the same room can have negative consequences: not for the child, but for the mother.
Read Drs. Alice Gregory and Erin Leichman take on combining science and family preferences to help your little one sleep on The Conversation’s website.
Read about how a brochure outlining three simple stories helped families support better sleep hygiene.
Despite safe sleep recommendations, retailers continue to depict babies in unsafe sleeping environments through retail images.
Are you pregnant and not sleeping well? Check out a new research study working to help expecting moms sleep better. Participants will receive an online, evidence-based program to improve sleep and up to $60 in gift cards.
Listen to Dr. Catherine Hill on a BBC Radio Ask the Expert segment talk about some exciting pediatric sleep topics!
More news about the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s sleep range recommendations for children as well as their mental and physical health.
Sonia L. Rubens
Elementary school students report of the amount of time they spend in bed. Sleep quality is associated with internalizing (for example, anxiety, depression) and externalizing (for example, reactive aggression) symptoms.
Jodi Mindell
Information on newborn, infant, and toddler (0 to 36 months) sleep patterns was collected via a smartphone app. Sleep patterns developed at about 5-6 months old, later bedtimes predicted less sleep, and morning waketimes were generally consistent across children. Unique images from the data collected were created, representing sleep consolidation (sleeping for longer stretches) over a three-year period for both daytime and nighttime sleep.
Michael Gradisar
Two types of sleep training improve falling asleep and overnight sleep, do not relate to adverse stress responses in infants or mothers, and have no long term negative effects on attachment, emotion, or behavior.
Alice M. Gregory
Learn more about the role of sleep and interventions in childhood psychiatric problems in the context of development.
K. Hannan
Sleep problems are common in childhood, but home-based behavioral sleep interventions implemented by caregivers can help. These interventions can be implemented by caregivers with community health practitioners playing a key role in describing strategies to families.
R. Butler
Babies who sucked their fingers, but not necessarily babies who used a pacifier, tended to sleep better overnight (fewer night wakings and longer stretches of sleep), a recent study showed.
Emma Sanders
Many children with Down syndrome also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Development of a screening tool for OSA specifically for children with Down syndrome is
described.
A.J. Swichtenberg
For children with developmental disabilities, melatonin is generally associated with taking less time to fall asleep at bedtime in addition to uncommon and mild side effects.
Lisa Meltzer
Caregivers (mothers and fathers) of children who require ventilator assistance to breathe have poor sleep as compared to caregivers of healthy children. Poor sleep for these families was associated with health related quality of life.
Sarah Honaker
Learn more about how the primary care setting (your doctor’s office) is a great place to screen for and manage your child’s sleep difficulties. Also, learn more about the barriers to effectively addressing sleep in those settings, as although sleep problems are frequent actual screening and management rates are low.
Oliviero Bruni
Study on sleep in the first year of life suggests that sleep shows the most stability between 6 and 12 months and prevention efforts should focus on the first 3 to 6 months. Approximately 10% of babies in the study were considered to have problematic sleep.
Jocelyn Thomas
Learn about potential controversies related to treating sleep problems in young children such as which strategies have the most empirical support, the best age to begin to use these strategies, and any possible negative consequences of using these strategies.
Jose Carlos Pereira, Jr.
Learn more about restless legs syndrome in this review from experts in the field.
Jodi Mindell
The research team analyzed more than 1,000 sleep-related questions that were submitted to an Ask the Expert section of a publicly available smart phone app for sleep in young children. Caregivers asked questions primarily about night wakings, sleep schedules, and bedtime problems.
Robyn Stremler
According to this study, the choice to room or bed share varies by family and changes over time for families of newborns from 6 weeks to 12 weeks after birth. Bed sharing at any frequency was quite common (41 to 51% depending on baby age), and was associated with more sleep disruption for moms.
Hawley E.
Read up on moms’ and dads’ sleep right after they have a little one.
Sarah Honaker
Read a review of information about evidence-based treatments for bedtime problems and night wakings in young children.
Li A.M.
Prevalence of habitual snoring shows racial differences among countries across Asia Pacific, based on a study of over 23,000 infants.
Kathryn Turnbull
Read a review about the developmental context of sleep as it relates to self-regulation and executive functioning in childhood.
Keith D. Allen
A set of behavioral strategies to reduce chronic sleep problems in five children with Angelman Syndrome was evaluated. Parents were highly satisfied with the treatment and improvements in disruptive bedtime behaviors as well as falling asleep were noted.
Debra Babcock
Parents and caregivers should be asked about their children’s sleep at every routine physical examination. Educating families about the importance of sleep is an important intervention that can be delivered in a pediatric primary care setting.
Graham Reid
See Dr. Reid talk about strategies to help your preschooler get to sleep and stay asleep more easily.
Melisa Moore
Read a case study and treatment options for bedtime problems and night wakings.
Jodi Mindell
Sleep patterns of over 29,000 infants and toddlers in several countries in predominantly Asian countries and predominantly Caucasian countries were analyzed. Overall, children from predominantly Asian countries had significantly later bedtimes, shorter total sleep times, increased parental perception of sleep problems, and were more likely to room-share than children from predominantly Caucasian countries/regions.
Graham Reid
Sleep problems in toddlers, including night wakings and bedtime resistance, are predictors of internalizing (for example, anxiety) and externalizing (for example, hyperactivity, aggression) behavioral problems.
