Behavioral insomnia of childhood affects 15-30% of infants. Behavioral interventions, based on limiting parent-child bedtime and nighttime interactions, are effective in significantly improving infant sleep problems. However, the implementation of these interventions frequently encompasses significant infant crying and parental distress that deter many parents. Research on gradual sleep interventions that involve a lower "dose" of parent-infant separation, and thus may be more acceptable by parents, has so far been sparse. The proposed study aims to advance research in this area through systematically studying the processes through which parent and infant factors impact treatment outcomes of a behavioral intervention method that involves parent-infant separation only at bedtime ("bedtime checking"), in comparison to an intervention that also directly targets night-wakings ("standard checking"/"graduated extinction").
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Change in infant actigraphic number of night-wakings from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in parents' actigraphic number of night-wakings from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in infant actigraphic minutes awake during the night from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in parents' actigraphic minutes awake during the night from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in infant sleep logs' number of night-wakings from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention.
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in parents' sleep logs' number of night-wakings from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention.
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in infant sleep logs' minutes awake during the night from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention.
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in parents' sleep logs' minutes awake during the night from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention.
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in infant sleep logs' subjective sleep quality from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention.
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Change in parents' sleep logs' subjective sleep quality from baseline to 1-week and 2-week start of intervention.
Timeframe: baseline and 1- and 2-week start of intervention
Attrition from intervention
Timeframe: baseline and 2-week start of intervention.
Change from Baseline in parental reports of Infant Sleep Quality (based on the BISQ)
Timeframe: Baseline and 5 weeks post-baseline