A pilot study examining the effectiveness of brief sleep treatment to improve children’s emotional and behavioral functioning

ABSTRACT

This pilot study evaluated a brief sleep treatment for children presenting with emotional/behavioral disorders. Parents of children ages 6 to 11 years (n = 27) completed measures of emotional/behavioral symptoms at baseline, following sleep treatment, and after behavioral parent training for emotional/behavioral symptoms. Children wore actigraphs to objectively measure sleep, and parents completed weekly assessments of children’s symptoms. Emotional/behavioral symptoms improved from baseline to post-sleep treatment and continued to improve following treatment specifically for emotional/behavioral problems. Brief behavioral sleep interventions show promise for improving emotional/behavioral disorders. Future research is needed to evaluate sleep interventions in controlled trials.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the participating families and acknowledge the invaluable support provided by Boys Town South Florida and the research assistants of the Pediatric Health Laboratory at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interests to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an American Psychological Foundation Visionary Grant.