Feasibility of a Single-Subject Protocol to Shift Young Children’s Sleep Schedules

• Published in: Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 541 - 549
• Main Authors: Fisher, Rachel S., Krietsch, Kendra N., Janicke, David. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Children & youth; Families & family life; Family Medicine; General Practice; Health Psychology; Home education; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Parents & parenting; Schedules; Sleep; Bedtime; Circadian; Pediatric; Experimental; Methods
• ISSN: 1068-9583; 1573-3572; 1573-3572
• DOI: 10.1007/s10880-019-09604-8

The objective of this study is to describe children’s adherence to changing sleep schedules within a small-scale, single-subject, at-home sleep manipulation experiment. Subjects were six healthy children (male = 4, ages 6–8). Children underwent: baseline, a 7-day self-selected sleep pattern; Condition A1, a 3- to 12-day stabilized sleep pattern (assigned time into/out of bed set at baseline averages); Condition B, a 3- to 12-day phase-delayed sleep pattern (time into/out of bed 2 h later than Condition A); and Condition A2, a 3- to 7-day return-to-stabilized sleep pattern (time into/out of bed at Baseline averages, identical to Condition A1). All children completed conditions. Per parent report, adherence to assigned time into/out of bed was good; sleep onset/offset adherence was variable. Within this small-scale, short-term sleep manipulation, children effectively got into/out of bed at assigned times despite manipulating sleep schedules by 2 h. However, they struggle to shift their sleep onset and offset times to match the time they were in bed.