The purpose of the Toddler Sleep Study (TDS) is to examine if, and if so how, sleep impacts the development of cognitive and temperamental self-regulation. In this longitudinal study, families involved in the study participate over three waves when their toddler is 30, 36, and 42 months old.
Over the course of the study, we collect quantitative and qualitative data related to the child's sleep, including parent-reports of children's sleep habits and bedtime routine, observations of the bedtime routine, and actigraphy-measured sleep quality and quantity. Actigraphy is a widely-used method of capturing certain aspects of sleep (e.g. sleep latency, sleep duration, and night wakings), and involves the use of a small device (called an actigraph) that records movement. In addition to measures of children's sleep, we also are collecting data on child temperament (reactivity and regulation), verbal and non-verbal cognitive ability, parenting practices, and parent-child interactions
The Early Development and Learning Lab is partnering with labs at Indiana University and Virginia Tech to collect data from a large, diverse sample of families. We will be collecting data through 2017, and combined with the other two sites, estimate to have a final sample size of over 600. This project is funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
