Worrying about your children’s sleep habits could put you at risk of depression, according to a scientist who described her research on the website The Conversation.
Analyzing data from Canadian parents, our research team wanted to examine links between their thinking about sleep problems, mothers’ and fathers’ sleep quality, parental fatigue and depression in the context of infants’ behavioural sleep problems.
After an intervention for infants’ sleep problems, we found that mothers’ depression was associated with their sleep quality, fatigue and thoughts about infant sleep. (These thoughts included doubts about managing infant sleep, anger about infants’ sleep and setting limits around infants’ sleep). Fathers’ depression was linked with their sleep quality, fatigue and thoughts about infant sleep (doubts about managing infant sleep, and setting limits around infants’ sleep).
Sleep quality and fatigue are often viewed as symptoms of maternal depression. These findings are therefore important because paternal depression has been examined less often and parental thoughts about infant sleep have been largely overlooked.
Read more at www.theconversation.com
