Scientific Studies

Low parental tolerance for crying

Parents with a lower tolerance for crying show an "excessive involvement" in soothing infants to sleep. This prevents babies from self-soothing and leads to poor developmental sleep.

Published

March 16, 2016

Avi Sadeh, Michal Juda-Hanael, Efrat Livne-Karp, Michal Kahn, Liat Tikotzky, Thomas F. Anders, Susan Calkins, Yakov Sivan

Sleep parenting practices associated with infant self-soothing behaviors

An infant's ability to self-soothe is directly related to parenting practices such as putting down awake versus feeding or assisting to sleep. Infants 6-24 weeks showed the abilities to self-soothe throughout the night.

Published

July 1, 2022

Elizabeth L. Adams, Lindsay Master, Orfeu M. Buxton, Jennifer S. Savage

Infants Can Resettle Themselves Back to Sleep by 3 Months of Age

"Infants are capable of resettling themselves back to sleep in the first 3 months of age; both autonomous resettling and prolonged sleeping are involved in “sleeping through the night” at an early age."

Published

June 1, 2015

Ian St James-Roberts, PhD, corresponding author Marion Roberts, PhD, corresponding author Kimberly Hovish, MA, and Charlie Owen, BSc

Stress impairs cognitive flexibility in infants

Stress negatively affects learning. Over-tiredness, poor and irregular sleep causes increased stress levels.

Published

October 13, 2015

Sabine Seehagen, Silvia Schneider, Julia Rudolph, Stephanie Ernst, and Norbert Zmyj

Early Maternal Depression

A parent's poor mental health can also put babies at a higher risk of insecure attachment.

Published

October 13, 2003

Carla Martins, E. A. Gaffan

Mother and child mental health effects

“At 2 years, mothers in the intervention group were less likely than control mothers to report clinical depression symptoms."

Published

September 1, 2008

Harriet Hiscock, Jordana K Bayer, Anne Hampton, Obioha C Ukoumunne, Melissa Wake

Infant sleep and maternal mood

Behavioral intervention significantly reduces infant sleep problems at two months. Maternal report of symptoms of depression decreased significantly at two months, and this was sustained at four months for mothers with high depression scores.

Published

May 4, 2002

H Hiscock, M Wake

Intervention for infants' behavioral sleep problems

The intervention improved caregivers' assessments of infant sleep problem severity and parental depression, fatigue, sleep, and sleep cognitions compared with controls.

Published

November 13, 2015

Wendy A Hall, Eileen Hutton, Rollin F Brant, Jean Paul Collet, Kathy Gregg, Roy Saunders, Osman Ipsiroglu, Amiram Gafni, Kathy Triolet, Lillian Tse, Radhika Bhagat, Joanne Wooldridge

Extinction of infant crying responses

Mother’s stress levels decreased during sleep training which lead to a more responsive parenting relationship and a decrease of stress for babies.

Published

April 1, 2012

Wendy Middlemiss, Douglas A. Granger, Wendy A. Goldberg, Laura Nathans

Maternal emotional well-being and infant sleep

Using sleep training to improve infant sleep, was effective in improving infant sleep and increased maternal emotional well-being. Mothers showed a significant decrease in depression, anxiety and stress.

Published

February 26, 2016

Brian Symon, Georgina E Crichton

Infant sleep training

"Sleep training improves infant sleep problems, with about 1 in 4 to 1 in 10 benefiting compared with no sleep training, with no adverse effects reported after 5 years. Maternal mood scales also statistically significantly improved; patients with the lowest baseline depression scores benefited the most.”

Published

January 8, 2018

Christina Korownyk

Sleep time duration recommendations

Babies who habitually sleep outside age-appropriate ranges exhibit more signs or serious health problems.

Published

January 8, 2015

Max Hirshkowitz, Kaitlyn Whiton, Steven M Albert, Cathy Alessi, Oliviero Bruni, Lydia DonCarlos, Nancy Hazen, John Herman, Eliot S Katz, Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, David N Neubauer, Anne E O'Donnell, Maurice Ohayon, John Peever, Robert Rawding, Ramesh C Sachdeva, Belinda Setters, Michael V Vitiello, J Catesby Ware, Paula J Adams Hillard

Cry it out in infants: no adverse effects on attachment and behavioral

Parental use of ‘cry it out’ in infants: no adverse effects on attachment and behavioral development at 18 months.

Published

March 10, 2020

Ayten Bilgin, Dieter Wolke

Depression and anger in fathers

Sleep problems in infants between 4-6 months of age were associated with increased depressive symptoms, doubt, anger, poor personal sleep quantity, and confidence.

Published

February 25, 2017

Fallon Cook, Rebecca Giallo, Zvezdana Petrovic, Amy Coe, Monique Seymour, Warren Cann, Harriet Hiscock

A Nightly Bedtime Routine: Impact on Sleep in Young Children and Maternal Mood

Bedtime routine linked to children falling asleep faster, waking less, and sleeping longer.

Published

May 1, 2009

Jodi A. Mindell, PhD, Lorena S. Telofski, BA, Benjamin Wiegand, PhD, and Ellen S. Kurtz, PhD2

Infant sleep and its relation with cognition and growth

Positive association between infant sleep patterns and memory, language, executive function and cognitive development.

Published

May 15, 2017

Elaine Kh Tham, Nora Schneider, Birit Fp Broekman

Review Of the relationships between sleep duration and health indicators in the early years (0-4 years)

Longer and more consistent sleep duration was linked with better body composition, emotional regulation and growth in children 0-4 years old.

Published

November 1, 2017

Jean-Philippe Chaput, Casey E Gray, Veronica J Poitras, Valerie Carson, Reut Gruber, Catherine S Birken, Joanna E MacLean, Salomé Aubert, Margaret Sampson, Mark S Tremblay

Infant sleep behaviors relate to their later cognitive and language abilities and morning cortisol stress hormone levels

This study found that babies with healthy, restorative sleep patterns had a direct link to higher cognition and language development. Better sleep = better development.

Published

May 1, 2022

Maria Hernandez-Reif, Nahide Gungordu

The Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) In Toddlers

Napping toddlers have better cortisol response making them healthier both cognitively and physically.

Published

January 1, 2015

Rebekah C Tribble, Julia Dmitrieva, Sarah E Watamura, Monique K LeBourgeois