Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1037165
their child within one hour of bedtime four or more times per week. Study participants were randomly assigned to either a control group who performed their usual bedtime routine and completed assessments for three weeks, or an intervention group who followed their usual bedtime routine for a week and then incorporated a massage with lotion and other quiet and soothing activities (lullabies and cuddles) for two weeks with assessments. Participants in the intervention group were instructed to turn the lights off no longer than 30 minutes after the intervention. Bedtime routines in both groups included both those who put their babies to bed awake and those who rocked their children to sleep, and both groups were asked not to change their routine during the study unless to add the intervention if randomized to that group. Measures were collected at three time points for baseline (after the no-treatment first week for both groups), week 1 (after the second no-treatment week for the control group and the first week of the introduced massage-based bedtime routine for the intervention group), and week 2 (end of the three-week study term and second week of the massage-based bedtime routine for the intervention group). Several self-report survey tools were used for the study and collected online to assess child and maternal sleep. The Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire is a validated and reliable tool for pediatric sleep assessment that asks respondents about sleeping arrangements and positioning, duration of day and night sleep and wakefulness, how and how long it takes to put the child to sleep, and the extent to which the child's sleep is considered a problem by the respondent. The rest of the study measures related to adult assessment of sleeping and sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale), mood (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and Brief Mood Introspection Scale), and anxiety and stress (Parenting Stress Index and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). One hundred and twenty-three (N=123) families participated, with 52 percent (n=64) randomized to the massage-based bedtime intervention group. Children participants' average age was 9 months and ranged from 3–18 months old. Maternal age ranged from 18–45 and averaged 30.6 years old. Infants were both girls (54 percent) and boys (46 percent), were majority White (53 percent), and included Hispanic (2 percent), Black or African American (31 percent), Asian Yo u r M & B i s w o r t h 2 C E s ! G o t o w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e t o l e a r n m o r e . 53