Grant: Operating Grant: ECRs in Human Development, Child and Youth Health

Most parents struggle with their baby's sleep in the first year. Severe and persistent sleep difficulties can harm parent-child relationships and infant and parental mental health. Parental education, individual consultations, and/or group sessions can help parents improve their baby's sleep, but parents are often overwhelmed with rigid or conflicting advice that is based in Western ideals, like solitary sleeping on a strict schedule. Canadian families are diverse, and what works for one may not work for others. In addition to considerations of gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, a family may be impacted by depression, poverty, or both. These intersecting factors will affect what educational content and delivery will work best. The SLUMBER (SLeep solUtions to proMote Better Early childhood Relationships) program will meet the needs of diverse families and get everyone sleeping better. Building on our earlier work with parents and care providers, we have developed 2 program prototypes, one each for younger (0-5 months) and older (6-12 months) babies. With this funding, we will further develop the SLUMBER program prototypes in 3 phases. First, we will have a group of parents test our prototypes and help us improve the user experience. The updated program prototypes will then be tested by another group of parents to see if they really do improve parent-infant interactions and sleep. Finally, we will conduct a small-scale pilot trial to evaluate SLUMBER against a control group (parents who aren't using the program), in preparation for larger clinical trials in the future. This work will bring SLUMBER closer to our goal of a novel, meaningful, and inclusive Canadian-developed digital health intervention that supports sleep and mental health in families of young children. Ultimately, the personalized approach in SLUMBER will prevent and/or lessen sleep problems with the added benefit of supporting parent-infant relationships and family mental health.