Links between family functioning and children’s sleep

A recent special issue of the Journal of Family Psychology (4) highlighted the importance of studying sleep in the family context for several reasons: (a) The social dimension of sleep often means that family members’ sleep amount and quality are interrelated; (b) Parents can influence children’s sleep in much the same way that they influence children’s waking behavior, by creating rules, setting limits, and providing an environment that is more or less conducive to obtaining high quality sleep; and (c) Because sleep and vigilance represent opponent processes (5), characteristics of the family that create concern, worry, anger, or insecurity for children (e.g., conflict, insensitive parenting) are likely to prevent children from obtaining adequate sleep (6).