Babys sleep linked to mothers mood.

ISLAMABAD, 07 May , 2009 (Balochistan Times) -- Sleep disturbances are more likely in babies born to mothers with depression than babies whose mothers do not suffer from depression. Establishment of a consistent bedtime routine is often recommended to parents of young children especially those with sleep difficulties, Health News reported. However, no studies have investigated the efficacy of such a routine independent of behavioural intervention. To examine the impact of a consistent bedtime routine on infant and toddler sleep, as well as maternal mood, researchers studied 206 mothers with infants aged 7- 18 months and 199 mothers with toddlers aged 18-36 months. The researchers evaluated the sleep behaviour of the children with the help of actigraphy. This helped monitoring how much the children moved about, for seven consecutive days on a monthly basis for 24 weeks. In addition, the babies mothers kept daily diaries of their sleep/wake periods. All mothers completed the brief infant sleep questionnaire on a weekly basis and a daily sleep diary, as well as the profile of mood states. It was found that babies of depressed mothers took longer to fall asleep than those of non-depressed mothers (about 80 minutes versus 20 minutes) and had more awakenings during the night-time sleep period (approximately 4 versus 2). These differences persisted throughout the full 24-week study period. The above findings suggest that having a consistent nightly bedtime routine is beneficial in improving multiple aspects of babies sleep, especially wakefulness after sleep onset and sleep continuity, as well as mothers mood. The researchers maintained that although there are many environmental and social factors that can influence infant sleep and behaviour, this study is a first step toward characterising the influence of maternal depression.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)