Tiina Mäkelä’s dissertation showed that certain areas of development are more strongly associated with signaled night awakening during the first two years of life. These areas consisted of socio-emotional behavior, executive functioning, and social information processing. In the dissertation, children who woke up three or more times during the night at eight months of age were compared to children with no more than one signaled night awakening.
“The studies showed that children with signaled night awakenings had less parent-reported skills for behavioral regulation and lower social competence at two years of age than children without signaled night awakenings. Children with signaled night awakenings also performed worse in an executive functioning task, and their attention to emotional faces was different than in children without signaled night awakenings,” Mäkelä says. In the executive functioning task, children were first required to learn the location of a stimulus appearing on one side of the computer screen and then to inhibit the previously learned response.
“Moreover, my dissertation showed that signaled night awakening is often persistent. The number of signaled night awakenings decreased in both groups, but children with frequent signaled night awakenings at eight months also had more parent-reported signaled night awakenings at 18 and 24 months compared to children without signaled night awakenings,” Mäkelä continues.
The studies also showed that sleep quality and duration differed between the two groups when sleep quality and duration were investigated longitudinally. Children with signaled night awakenings had shorter total sleep duration and they did not compensate for their sleep during the day compared to children without signaled night awakenings. In addition, children with signaled night awakenings spent more time awake during the night than children without signaled night awakenings.
Should parents be worried if their child has frequent signaled night awakenings?
“It is true that there were differences between the two groups in these studies. However, it is important to note that the differences between the groups were small,” Mäkelä points out.
“It would be important to systematically assess the number of signaled night awakenings as part of the well-child visits. If the child has frequent signaled night awakenings even after eight months of age, the characteristics of sleeping and the child’s development should be followed and the parents should be advised on how to support their child’s sleep and self-regulation skills in infancy,” Mäkelä continues.
Mäkelä’s dissertation confirms that especially socio-emotional behavior, executive functioning, and social information processing are associated with signaled night awakening in infancy. It is possible that signaled night awakening reflects developmental challenges in self-regulation that may predispose children to later problems in self-regulation and emotion regulation.
Tiina Mäkelä is a neuropsychologist currently working at Tampere University in the CHILD-SLEEP research project. In the CHILD-SLEEP project, these children and their development are followed through the school years.
Master of Arts (Psychology) Tiina Mäkelä’s doctoral dissertation for the Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) degree titled Signaled night awakening in infancy: Associations with psychomotor development, executive functioning, social information processing, and socio-emotional behavior will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences at 12 o'clock on 7 January 2023. The venue is auditorium D11 in the Main building (address: Kalevantie 4). Professor Mari Hysing from the University of Bergen will act as the opponent while Docent Anneli Kylliäinen from the Faculty of Social Sciences will supervise the public defence.
The event can also be followed via remote connetion.
The doctoral dissertation is available online
Photo: Jenni Lauttia