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Postural change for supine position does not disturb toddlers' nap

Hidenobu Ohta1,2,3, Yoshihisa Oishi4, Takako Hirose4

  • 1Department of Pyschophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawa-higashi-cho, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8553, Japan. hideohta@med.akita-u.ac.jp.

Scientific Reports
|July 21, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Changing toddlers' sleep position from prone to supine, a sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) prevention method, does not disrupt their naps. Infants briefly woke or remained asleep after staff adjusted their sleeping position during nursery naps.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Sleep Medicine
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) is a concern, prompting preventative measures like the "Back to Sleep" campaign (BSC).
  • Japanese nurseries routinely adjust toddlers' sleeping positions from prone to supine during naps as a SUDC preventative strategy.
  • The BSC recommendations, applied to infants over one year old since 1996, aimed to decrease SUDC rates.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if forced postural changes from prone to supine during toddler naps disturb sleep.
  • To assess the impact of a common SUDC preventative measure on young children's sleep quality in a nursery setting.

Main Methods:

  • Fifty-two toddlers (18.4 ± 3.3 months) were monitored for 8 hours using actigraphy and accelerometers to track sleep status and body position (prone, supine, lateral).
  • Nursery staff manually repositioned 24 toddlers from prone to supine during naps.
  • Wake-sleep status and duration of awakenings after positional changes were recorded.

Main Results:

  • Manual repositioning from prone to supine resulted in minimal or no waking for toddlers.
  • When awakenings occurred, they were brief (3.1 ± 4.9 minutes), with toddlers quickly returning to sleep.
  • The majority of toddlers did not experience significant sleep disturbance due to the positional adjustments.

Conclusions:

  • Manual adjustment of toddlers' sleeping position from prone to supine does not negatively impact their sleep during naps.
  • This practice, implemented as a potential SUDC prevention method, appears safe and minimally disruptive to toddler sleep.
  • Findings support the continued use of positional adjustments in nurseries as a SUDC preventative measure without compromising sleep quality.

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