The effects of an online education lecture on parents' knowledge and skills to reduce their children’s sleep problems

Sleep is a basic human need and is essential to overall wellness. One-third of parents are thought to struggle to get their kids to sleep at night and to go back to sleep. The most common sleep problems that children with intellectual disabilities and typically developing children experience are bed...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hildur Júlíusdóttir 1993-
Other Authors: Háskólinn í Reykjavík
Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1946/48231
Description
Summary:Sleep is a basic human need and is essential to overall wellness. One-third of parents are thought to struggle to get their kids to sleep at night and to go back to sleep. The most common sleep problems that children with intellectual disabilities and typically developing children experience are bedtime resistance, unwanted parental co-sleeping, and night-time awakenings. Many parents do not identify these problems, have doubts about the efficacy of treatments that are available, and as a result, do not seek assistance. Studies have highlighted the importance of parental training in addressing their children's sleep problems. However, there has been no research published on parents' knowledge of sleep and children's sleep problems in Iceland. Parent training educates parents on the importance of establishing healthy sleep hygiene and habits, and therefor strengthens them to deal with their children's sleep problems. The study evaluated an educational lecture's effectiveness in increasing questionnaire scores about sleep fundamentals and strategies to reduce children's bedtime resistance and dependence on parental presence. Using a non-concurrent multiple baseline design, the lecture improved parents' ability to manage bedtime behaviors and increased their scores. Social acceptability measures indicated that parents were satisfied with the lecture's impact and methods. Keywords: children's sleep, sleep education, problem behavior, online lecture, parent training