Dr Ariel Williamson: Family Environment Is Crucial When Tailoring Sleep Interventions

It’s important to consider the social context, the social ecology, and the family environment when investigating behavioral sleep problems among children and adults, because past interventions have typically focused on the individual, noted Arielle Williamson, PhD, DBSM, clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Williamson is presenting “Sleep Health, Sleep Problems, and Psychosocial Functioning Among Shift-Working Parents and Their Young Children” today at SLEEP 2023.

Transcript

Can you discuss your key findings on sleep health and problems and psychosocial functioning in shift-working parents and their children?

I'm presenting some findings from the baseline of a randomized trial that I'm conducting to help caregivers—meaning parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles—treat childhood insufficient sleep or behavioral sleep problems, like difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, among young children ages 1 to 5 years. In looking at these data and in looking at the intervention, which was conducted by video and among families who are referred from primary care settings, I noticed that we had a lot of families grappling with shift work.

What we've learned from our previous qualitative research is that families who engage in shift work had reported to us that it can be really difficult to do behavioral sleep strategies that their doctors recommend. So things like having a consistent routine, where they're there with their child at bedtime, because they often need to get home late or their child remains up to wait for them because they want to spend time or they have to go between multiple different homes to take care of their child. These data that I'll be presenting are really looking at what are the characteristics of the shift workers in the sample who are seeking behavioral sleep treatment for their child with a sleep problem.

For example, depression or other concerns like sleep disturbances and COVID-19–related stress, are they potentially worse among shift-working caregivers? I also will be presenting some information about how we tailor the intervention and what the caregivers who worked shifts thought about the intervention after it.

Why is this such an important area of study, and what are some current research priorities?

This is such an important area to study because, typically, past interventions for either behavioral sleep problems among children or sleep problems among adults really focused on the individual. And so thinking about the social context, the social ecology, the family environment is very important when we're trying to think about what works for what kinds of families and how do we make sure that the interventions we develop are really appropriate for families who maybe have different work arrangements or childcare arrangements or are away most of the day and can't spend time with their child or don't get home until very, very late at night.

My current priorities are really taking the evidence base for sleep treatments and making sure that we can adapt those treatments to be effective for all different types of children and families. In the future, I'm also really looking into shift-working families and how we can really try to do more sleep health equity promotion among shift workers who maybe work essential jobs or are experiencing lower income as well and could have less access to behavioral sleep treatment and other resources to help with sleep disturbances, mood, and parenting stress.