The Emotional Foundation of Bedtime

Sleep during infancy is an incredibly important process that supports brain maturation, memory consolidation, and early learning, and research on environmental influences is critical to supporting these processes. This project aims to assess whether caregivers’ emotion regulation difficulties predict poorer infant sleep quality and if nighttime routines are a mechanism linking these variables. We are conducting both cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations utilizing parents of infants and validated questionnaires. Preliminary findings in both cohorts suggest that difficulties in emotion regulation are related to and predict infant sleep quality, but nighttime routines do not mediate this relation. Findings will inform family-based interventions to promote healthy sleep in infants and caregiver emotion regulation. Data collection is ongoing.