Objective and subjective sleep and caregiving feelings in mothers of infants: A longitudinal daily diary study

Dar Ran-Peled, Yael Bar-Shachar, Avel Horwitz, Omer Finkelstein, Eran Bar-Kalifa, Gal Meiri, Liat Tikotzky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Study Objectives: This study explored the links between mothers' objective and subjective sleep and their caregiving feelings toward their infant (i.e. patience for the infant, desire to be with the infant, and anger toward the infant), using a diary study design. We were particularly interested in examining whether nights of lower sleep quality within individual mothers predict more negative maternal caregiving feelings the following day. Methods: The sample included 151 women, who were recruited during pregnancy. Data were collected at 4 and 8 months after delivery. Maternal sleep was monitored at home for seven nights using actigraphy and sleep diaries. Mothers rated their caregiving feelings each evening. Results: Multilevel modeling (controlling for depressive symptoms, feeding method, and background variables) revealed that actigraphic and subjective sleep variables were associated with maternal caregiving feeling, both at the between-and within-person levels. For example, lower sleep percent predicted reduced levels of maternal patience for the infant at 4 and 8 months (between-person effect). Moreover, when a mother had a lower sleep percent on a given night (compared to her average), she reported lower levels of patience for her infant the following day (within-person prospective effect). Conclusions: The findings demonstrate, for the first time, that maternal nightly variations in objective and subjective sleep quality predict daily changes in maternal feelings toward her infant at two different assessment points. Improving maternal sleep quality might be an important target for future interventions which may help mothers to feel more positively toward their infants.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberzsac090
JournalSleep
Volume45
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Jul 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Sleep Research Society. All rights reserved.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (Grant number 345/15). This was not an industry supported study

FundersFunder number
Israel Science Foundation345/15

    Keywords

    • Actigraphy
    • Caregiving
    • Diary study
    • Infant
    • Mother
    • Mother-infant relationship
    • Sleep

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Objective and subjective sleep and caregiving feelings in mothers of infants: A longitudinal daily diary study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this