Tips for Infant and Parent Sleep (TIPS)

The Hospital for Sick Children

Status

Completed

Conditions

Sleep Deprivation

Treatments

Behavioral: TIPS Intervention

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00228215

1000007776

Details and patient eligibility

About

A randomized controlled trial design will be used to answer whether a behavioral-educational sleep intervention and support from a nurse in the immediate postpartum improves maternal and infant sleep 6 weeks later.

Full description

Infant and maternal sleep in the postpartum are related, and influenced by the mother's understanding of infant sleep behavior, the environmental and social cues for sleep presented to the infant, development of the infant's sleep physiology, maternal sleep habits and behaviors, and maternal feelings related to her sleep and her baby's sleep. These factors may be modifiable through the use of behavioral-educational interventions. A randomized controlled trial design will be used to answer whether a behavioral-educational sleep intervention and support from a nurse in the immediate postpartum improves maternal and infant sleep 6 weeks later. Sleep-wake patterns will be analyzed through the use of actigraphy, a wristwatch-like device that measures sleep-wake activity. This is a pilot study which will test the usefulness and practicality of this type of program, so that a larger scale study can be developed.

Enrollment

30 patients

Sex

All

Ages

8 hours to 7 days old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Singleton baby born at GA >37 weeks
baby 8 hours to 7 days old
Mother age 16-50 years
Normal, healthy infant as described in newborn examination
First time parents living in the Greater Toronto Area
Mother planning to provide fulltime care to her infant for at least the first six weeks after discharge home

Exclusion criteria

Maternal or infant complications requiring prolonged hospital stay
Previous stillbirth or neonatal death
Maternal chronic illness
Maternal use of medications that affect sleep (e.g. benzodiazepines, any sleep aid)
Known drug or alcohol use beyond occasional social use
Smoking two packs a day or more
Either parent has a diagnosed sleep disorder (e.g. obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy)
Mother's partner is working night shifts
Mother unable to read or understand English
No telephone in the home
Involvement in another research protocol involving sleep