A team of Finnish researchers analyzed family sleep patterns to identify similarities or differences and to examine how mental health and attachment style are related within family groups. While family dynamics influence sleep habits, there is little research examining the relationship.
“Do Parents and Their Children Have Similar Sleep Characteristics?”
In this study, Raija-Leena Punamäki, PhD, Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, University of Tampere, and researchers discussed how sleep might affect the individual through various theory-based perspectives.
From the point of view of “family systems theories”, the interdependence between family members would support the idea that parents and children have similar sleep behavior. This approach goes beyond sleep and also recognizes the influence that family relationships can have on well-being, stress, and emotional expressions.
Looking through the lens of “attachment theory,” there is an emphasis on reciprocity and early experiences. The affective relationship that is established between parents and children leads to a certain attachment security that then influences the psychophysiological-hormonal regulation of the child, and subsequently impacts their circadian rhythm and sleep patterns.
Based on previous sleep research, similarities between the sleep characteristics of family members have been suggested, as sleep disorders appear to be somewhat consistent within a family. Research has even shown that the architecture of an individual’s sleep patterns, including duration, ratio of sleep stages, and chronotypes of diurnal preferences for morning or night, resembles that of members of their family. family.
The sleep study
For this research, the team enrolled people to participate in one of 3 study groups: adolescents (n=438), mothers (n=448), and fathers (n=358). All individuals completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).
A mental health assessment was conducted in adolescents (17-18 years old) based on self-reported responses to the Behavioral Assessment System. Parents were given the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Attachments were reported through Experiences in Close Relationships.
The primary objective was to identify family sleep triadic clusters based on sleep onset latency, duration, perceived quality, ‘evening’, ‘morning’, sleep problems, medication, and impact on functioning. day. The second goal was to determine how each group’s mental health problems and attachment relationships were associated with the family sleep triadic groups the team identified.
Family relationships and influence on sleep
These data, along with research operating from a family systems approach, may provide novel insights into sleep, mental health, and attachments.
The results of the cluster analysis revealed 4 triadic groups of sleep:
- Good family sleep (47%)
- Poor adolescent and maternal sleep (29%)
- Poor parental sleep (16%)
- Parents in this group showed a higher prevalence of psychiatric symptoms
- Parents in this group reported more insecure-avoidant and insecure-anxious attachments.
- Poor family sleep (8%)
- Teens in this group had more mental health problems
- These adolescents reported greater insecure-anxious attachment
Adolescent mental health and sleep architecture
Results indicated general associations for adolescents between mental health problems and triadic sleep groups. Adolescents in the “Poor Family Sleep” group showed higher levels of depression, anxiety, and somatization symptoms and anger inhibition problems compared to adolescents in the “Good Family Sleep” and “Poor Parental Sleep” groups. However, they were similar to those of the group “Poor adolescent and mother of the dream”.
In addition, inattention and hyperarousal problems were more frequent among adolescents in the “Poor family sleep” group compared to all other groups.
Parental health and sleep patterns
Associations were seen between psychiatric symptoms in parents and triadic sleep groups, although the researchers noted that univariate analyzes with post hoc tests showed significance only for parents.
Parents in the “Poor Parental Sleep” group reported higher levels of psychiatric symptoms compared with those in the “Good Family Sleep” and “Poor Teen and Maternal Sleep” groups, but were consistent with parents in the “Poor Parental Sleep” group. family”.
“Interventions to improve sleep quality should take into account family dynamics that may underlie potential sleep problems, and sleep, as a public health issue, may benefit from knowledge about mental health and family ties.” “, the researchers concluded.
The study “Do family members sleep the same? Sleep characteristics among mothers, fathers and adolescents”was published in the Interdisciplinary journal of applied family science.
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