Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY
Volume 55, Issue 4, Pages 361-372Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/dev.21040
Keywords
mother; father; couples; newborn; family; postpartum; sleep; disturbance; impairment; fatigue; neurobehavioral performance
Categories
Funding
- NIH [R21HD053836]
- Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences Training Scholarship [T32GM081741]
- APAGS Basic Psychological Science Research Grant
- WVU Doctoral Student Research Support Alumni Fund
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The study aim was to compare sleep, sleepiness, fatigue, and neurobehavioral performance among first-time mothers and fathers during their early postpartum period. Participants were 21 first-time postpartum motherfather dyads (N=42) and seven childless control dyads (N=14). Within their natural environment, participants completed 1 week of wrist actigraphy monitoring, along with multi-day self-administered sleepiness, fatigue, and neurobehavioral performance measures. The assessment week was followed by an objective laboratory-based test of sleepiness. Mothers obtained more sleep compared to fathers, but mothers' sleep was more disturbed by awakenings. Fathers had greater objectively measured sleepiness than mothers. Mothers and fathers did not differ on subjectively measured sleep quality, sleepiness, or fatigue; however, mothers had worse neurobehavioral performance than fathers. Compared to control dyads, postpartum parents experienced greater sleep disturbance, sleepiness, and sleepiness-associated impairments. Study results can inform social policy, postpartum sleep intervention development, and research on postpartum family systems and mechanisms that propagate sleepiness. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 55: 361372, 2013
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