Parental Misperceptions About Infant Sleep as a Moderator Between Co-Sleeping and Infant Sleep

Abstract

Objectives: Co-sleeping is defined as caregivers and infants sleeping in the same place or room. The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between co-sleeping, infant sleep, and parental misperceptions about infant sleep. Methods: The participants were 832 English-speaking caregivers. Most of the sample comprised of mothers (70.79%). The infants ages ranged from 6 to 12 months. All participants completed the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire-Revised and Parental Understanding and Misperceptions about BAby’s Sleep-Questionnaire in an online survey. Infant sleep and nighttime parental intervention were recorded using auto-videosomnography. The chi-square, non-parametric covariance analysis, and moderation analysis were conducted to analyze the results. Results: Among the respondents, 771 (92.70%) report-ed that their infants were in the solitary-sleeping group and 61 (7.30%), in the co-sleeping group. Parental misperceptions about infant sleep were higher in the co-sleeping group (29.67±11.28) than the solitary-sleeping group (23.5±10.79; p <0.001). The co-sleeping group had lower total sleep time (523.51±76.38) compared to the solitary-sleeping group (604.91±61.29; p <0.001) based on auto-videosomnography. The moderating effect of parental misperceptions about infant sleep in the relationship between parent-reported infant number of awakenings during the night (NWAK) and co-sleeping was significant (B=0.033, p =0.017). Conclusions: Co-sleeping had low prevalence in this study compared to solitary-sleeping. Co-sleeping was associated with higher levels of parental misperception about infant sleep. Additionally, in the case of co-sleeping caregivers, a higher misperception about infant sleep was more strongly associated with parent-reported infant NWAK. Parental misperceptions about infant sleep may be an important factor to consider in pediatric sleep.