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Journal of Pediatric Psychology logoLink to Journal of Pediatric Psychology
. 2021 Mar 1;46(6):719–728. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsab016

Parents' Nonstandard Work and Children’s Sleep: The Mediating Role of Bedtime Routines

Alexandrea L Craft 1,✉, Maureen Perry-Jenkins 1, Rachel Herman 1, Rebecca M C Spencer 1
PMCID: PMC8291674  PMID: 33674877

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined if caregivers’ long work hours or shift work are related to children’s sleep duration through the disruption of bedtime routines. Method: Work hours and schedules, bedtime routines and sleep (actigraph assessments) were examined in a sample of 250 caregivers and their preschool children. Results: Results revealed that consistent bedtime routines mediated the relationship between caregiver’s work and children’s sleep, such that longer hours and shift work predicted fewer routines that, in turn, predicted less child sleep. Conclusion: These results point to the crucial role of bedtime routines as a promising point of intervention for working parents. While caregivers may not be able to change their work hours or schedules, they can create more stable and consistent bedtime routines to mitigate the negative effects of their work on children’s sleep.

Keywords: family functioning, parents, preschool children, sleep

Introduction

In western societies, early childhood sleep problems are one of the most common concerns reported to pediatricians, with an estimated 20% of preschool children receiving inadequate sleep (Steinsbekk, Berg-Nielsen, & Wichstrøm, 2013). Sleep disruptions in early childhood are associated with a number of negative child outcomes including impaired cognitive functioning (Short et al., 2018), emotional problems (Quach, Nguyen, Williams, & Sciberras, 2018), and obesity (Hanlon, Dumin, & Pannain, 2019). The widespread prevalence and consequences of sleep problems in early childhood has stimulated researchers to investigate determinants of sleep difficulties.

In a large global sample of 10,000+ families, Mindell, Li, Sadeh, Kwon, & Goh (2015) found that consistent bedtime routines are associated with better sleep outcomes for children, including earlier bedtimes, shorter sleep onset latency, reduced night walkings, and increased sleep duration. Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule helps children develop a capacity for self-regulation, which could also benefit sleep quality (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). For these reasons, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that parents maintain specific routines (e.g., brushing teeth, reading books, and maintaining consistent bedtimes) to facilitate children’s sleep (Allen, Howlett, Coulombe, & Corkum, 2016; Paruthi et al., 2016).

Many parents, but especially employed parents, face significant challenges maintaining structured and consistent bedtime routines due to work schedules and demands. Employed parents face conflicts related to job scheduling and long hours that can restrict their time and energy to devote to the day-to-day demands of parenting (Greenhaus & Powell, 2012; Helms, Walls, Crouter, & McHale, 2010). These challenges are even greater for workers with low-income who must often cope with long work hours, non-day work shifts and unpredictable schedules (Gerstel & Clawson, 2015). In the 24/7 economy, more jobs have unpredictable, or nontraditional schedules (Howard, 2017), requiring evening, night, or rotating shifts, which may interfere with parents’ abilities to maintain consistent bedtime routines for their children.

Few studies, however, have examined the effects of parental work schedules on children’s sleep (Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su, 2014; Magee, Caputi, & Iverson, 2012). The following study examined the relations between parents’ work hours and schedules and insufficient sleep in children. One process whereby work may affect children’s sleep is through disrupting bedtime routines that enable good sleep. Parental employment may disrupt routines because parents either adjust their children’s sleep schedules to match their variable work schedules, or turn the enforcement of bedtime routines over to others (e.g., babysitters, relatives), resulting in inconsistencies. The present study examines the relationship between parental work and children’s sleep via the mediating role of bedtime routines.

Work and Parental Health

Labor force participation rates of mothers have increased dramatically, from 47% in 1975 to 72% in 2018 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009, 2019). According to Population Surveys, dual-earner families rose from 33% of two-parent households in 1967 to 63% in 2018 while employed single-parents increased from 47% to 74% of single-parent families over the same period (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019). One result of these changes in employment is that American working parents experience greater work–family conflict as they try to balance the time pressures and demands of work with family responsibilities (Bianchi, 2011).

Long hours and/or unpredictable work schedules, have deleterious effects on parents’ physical and psychological health, including their sleep. In a literature review, Caruso (2006) found that long work hours were associated with greater fatigue, stress, unhappiness, depression, diabetes, impairment of the immune system, hypertension, and severe cardiovascular risk. Erratic work schedules (e.g., rotating shifts; mandatory overtime), and night and evening work hours, have been related to insomnia, depression, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity (Drake, Roehrs, Richardson, Walsh, Roth, 2004; Macagnan et al., 2012). Research indicates that work schedules independently predict health outcomes, above and beyond social class and race (Perry-Jenkins & Gerstel, 2020). One process whereby work conditions affect health outcomes is through disrupted and poor quality sleep (Sato, Kuroda, & Owan, 2020).

Insufficient sleep in adults has been associated with disturbances in cognitive and psychomotor function including mood, concentration, memory, learning, vigilance, and reaction times (Czeisler, 2011). Caruso et al. (2006) found that long work hours, working night and weekend shifts, and short rest periods, were related to increased work-related stress and reduced time for activities that enable recovery from work (i.e. sleep). An imbalance between workload and time to recover from exhaustion is associated with physical and mental illness. Night work has a negative effect on workers’ health and well-being through the disruption of normal circadian rhythms (Boivin and Boudreau, 2014). Long hours, shift work, and nonstandard work schedules are related to reduced sleep and sleep difficulties in adults.

Parents’ Work, Sleep, and Children’s Health

While the relationship between employment and workers’ sleep has been studied extensively, it is less clear how parental work impinges on children’s sleep. Role strain theory proposes a scarcity hypothesis; specifically, parents have finite resources, in terms of time and energy; and when resources are scarce parents experience overload and strain (Goode, 1960). As stated, previous research has linked long work hours to parents’ fatigue and stress (Caruso, 2006) while insufficient sleep is related to parents’ depression and executive functioning difficulties (Czeisler, 2011). Thus in these cases, parents’ fatigue, stress, and depression can transfer from one domain to the other, leading to negative work-to-family or family-to-work spillover (Lawson, Davis, McHale, Hammer, & Buxton, 2014). Under this theory, researchers have proposed that parents’ nonstandard shifts or long work hours may affect children’s sleep indirectly through the disruption of family routines and rituals (Spagnola & Fiese, 2007). Parents’ experience of fatigue, stress and mental health decline within the context of their work environments may negatively impact their family life; depleted cognitive and physical resources impair parents’ ability to meet their family’s needs (i.e., consistent bedtime routines).

Regular enforcement of bedtime routines is a significant predictor of children’s sleep quality including earlier bedtimes, shorter sleep onset latency, reduced night walkings, and increased sleep duration (Allen et al., 2016; Buxton et al., 2015; Mindell et al., 2015). Hale, Berger, LeBourgeois, & Brooks-Gunn (2011) found that language-based bedtime routines, including singing, reading, and story-telling, were positively related to children's sleep duration and cognitive development. Similarly, Staples, Bates, and Petersen, (2015) found that adherence to a bedtime routine was associated with a greater amount of sleep over time for children. Thus, it follows that if parents’ long work hours or nonstandard work schedules impair their ability to establish or maintain bedtime routines, this will negatively affect children’s sleep.

In one of the few studies to examine parents’ work and child sleep, Magee, Caputi, and Iverson (2012), in a longitudinal study of Australian 6- to 7-year old children in dual-parent households, found that long mother work hours (>45 hours per week) were associated with short sleep durations for children (<9.5 h), while long father work hours were associated with a reduced likelihood of longer child sleep durations (>11.5 h). However, results attenuated when considering child bedtimes and waketimes suggesting that bedtime routines may mediate the association between parental work hours and child sleep durations.

In another study, Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su (2014) examined the relationship between maternal work and children’s sleep in a sample of predominately low-income, single, African-American women. The more hours mothers worked the higher the probability that they reported insufficient sleep. Furthermore, it was found that as mothers’ work hours moved from part time (20–34) to full-time (35–40) children’s odds of experiencing insufficient sleep increased from 63% to 98%, compared to children whose mothers worked few hours (1–19). It was also found that mothers who worked more than 40 hours per week had children who got better sleep compared to children of mothers employed full time (35–40 hours). This was a surprising result. The authors reasoned mothers who work longer hours may have more flexible schedules or the ability to do some work from home allowing them to maintain bedtime routines. Although these authors did not test bedtime routines as the process linking parental work hours to children’s sleep, they highlighted this as the next important step in this line of research.

Beyond work hours, Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su (2014) found that while mothers’ nonstandard work schedules were related to their insufficient sleep, or shorter sleep durations, it was unrelated to their children’s sleep. However, Magee and colleague’s (2012) found that mothers’ nonstandard work schedules were associated with longer sleep durations in their children. In both cases, researchers suggested that mothers who work nonstandard schedules may be able to maintain children’s sleep routines by relying on relatives or other childcare arrangements, buffering the effects of nonstandard work schedules. Overall, more research is needed to understand how parents’ work hours and nonstandard work shifts are related to children’s sleep, and what role bedtime routines may play.

Current Study

In the current study, it was hypothesized that parents’ work schedules, specifically longer work hours and nonstandard work schedules (i.e., overnights and rotating) would predict children’s insufficient sleep via disrupted (inconsistent) bedtime routines. This study expands on previous research by exploring how parental work is related to objective, as opposed to subjective, measures of children’s sleep. Although Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su (2014) found parental work hours were related to parent reports of children’s sleep duration, research shows that parents tend to underestimate night awakenings and overestimate sleep time (Mazza, Bastuji, & Rey, 2020). In the current study, children’s sleep is assessed with wrist-worn actigraphs that provide a reliable and valid estimate of sleep (Sadeh, 2007). While past research has found parental reports of children’s sleep to be correlated with actigraphy data, parents are less accurate reporters of sleep onset or duration (Dayyat, Spruyt, Molfese, & Gozal, 2011; Sadeh, 2007). Thus, the present study used actigraphy to estimate children’s sleep duration.

A number of key variables are related to both child sleep and family routines, namely family structure (e.g., single- vs. two-parent families), maternal mental health (e.g., depressive symptoms), and family income. Researchers have found that children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) homes display greater variation in sleep and wake patterns, and overall poorer sleep quality than children from higher SES households (de Jong et al., 2016). Additionally, studies have found that individuals with low-income and/or less education are more likely to have erratic work schedules, compared to more socioeconomically advantaged individuals (Howard, 2017). In addition, children living with married parents are more likely to have excellent or good health and less likely to suffer from chronic health problems, poor behavior or emotional difficulties than children from single, cohabitating or other family types (Blackwell, 2010). Thus, not having a spouse or partner to help support the maintenance of a consistent bedtime routines may be a barrier to children’s sleep. Lastly, research has found a bidirectional relationship between parental depression and child sleep problems; that is, maternal depressive symptoms influence child sleep problems and child sleep problems influence maternal depressive symptoms (de Jong et al., 2016). The following analyses controlled for education, family structure (i.e., single vs. two-parent households) and caregiver depressive symptoms. The present study addressed the following research questions:

  1. Are caregivers’ work hours and schedules related to their children’s sleep quality? It was hypothesized that mothers’ longer work hours and nonstandard schedules would be related to shorter child sleep durations. While Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su (2014) did not find caregiver shift work to be related to shorter child sleep durations, this study examined this hypothesis, using an objective measure of child sleep—actigraphy data.

  2. Do bedtime routines mediate the relationship between caregiver work and children’s sleep? Do bedtime routines mediate the relationship between nonstandard work schedules and children’s sleep? It was hypothesized that both longer work hours and nonstandard work hours would be related to less consistent bedtime routines, that, in turn, would predict shorter sleep durations in children (Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su, 2014).

Research Design and Method

Participants

Caregiver–child dyads were recruited as part of a larger study of the relation between sleep and learning in early childhood (Kurdziel, Kent, & Spencer, 2018). Participants were recruited from 30 preschools, including Head Start and private nonprofit preschools that serve families with lower income in western Massachusetts. Research staff distributed the study invitation to all children enrolled in participating preschools. The invitation described the objectives of the study (to learn about sleep’s function in early childhood and factors that influence sleep) and included a description of the memory tasks, actigraphic sleep measurement, and parent questionnaires.

All Caregivers had a child enrolled in a formal preschool in center-based settings before and throughout data collection. Caregivers were eligible to participate if their child (1) was 33–71 months of age, (2) had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing, (3) had no current or past diagnosis of a sleep disorder or developmental disability, (4) had no recent illness or travel across time zones, and (5) were not using sleep-affecting or psychotropic medications.

Caregivers of 251 children completed a series of questionnaires containing demographic (e.g., marital status, age, and income) and mental health information. Additionally, participants were required to have at least three weeknights of usable actigraphy data (Nixon et al., 2008).

Of the 251 caregivers, 96% were mothers with an average age of 35.24 years (SD = 7.06). Children’s average age was 4.34 (SD = 0.80). The sample was racially and ethnically diverse: 48.8% White, 32.2% Hispanic, 10.3% Multiracial, 5.4% Black, and 3.3% other. More than half the families were married (58%) while 17.6% were cohabitating and 24.4% were single. There was a wide range in educational attainment and family income (see Table I).

Table I.

Caregiver Sample Characteristics

Characteristic Percentage (%)
Race/ethnicity
 White 48.8
 Hispanic 32.2
 Multiracial 10.3
 Black 5.4
 Other 3.3
Marital status
 Married 58.0
 Not married, living with partner 17.6
 Never married 15.2
 Divorced or separated 9.2
Education
 Less than 12th grade 2.4
 High school diploma 8.4
 Some college 20.4
 Associates degree 10.0
 Bachelor’s degree 22.4
 Masters or doctorate 36.4
Income
 $5000 or less 2.5
 $5001–$10,000 5.5
 $10,001–$20,000 10.5
 $20,001–$40,000 22.3
 $40,001–$70,000 11.8
 $70,001–$100,000 16.4
 $100,001–$150,000 18.1
 More than $150,000 11.3
 Do not know/missing 1.7
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*

Many individuals that identified as Hispanic did not report a race.

Procedures

Caregivers provided written informed consent for their own and their child’s participation. On the first day of the 16-day study, research assistants were present in preschool classrooms to distribute actigraphs to participants. Following child assent, children were fitted with an actigraph watch on their nondominant wrist, and parent and child were instructed to press an event marker at lights-off (time child was expected to try to fall asleep) and after waking for both daytime and nighttime sleep episodes. Caregivers were asked to encourage their child to wear the watch continuously for 16 consecutive days (15 nights). Caregivers also completed a daily sleep diary to record any naps, periods where the watch was taken off, time the child was in bed (asleep or not), time it took the child to fall asleep, and wake time to provide context for actigraphy scoring. In the preschool classrooms, teachers recorded children’s nap times. Caregivers also completed questionnaires to assess household income, caregiver depressive symptoms and sleep quality. For their participation, caregivers received monetary compensation and children received a book.

Measures

Actigraph-Measured Child Sleep

Actigraphy is considered a reliable method for detecting sleep in children when compared with polysomnography (agreement rates = 85.1–88.6%; Hyde et al., 2007). Actigraphs used in this study were the Actiwatch Spectrum (Philips Respironics, Inc., Bend, OR), a water-resistant wrist-worn device with off-wrist detection and an embedded triaxial accelerometer to measure motion. Parents and children were instructed to press an event marker at lights-off and lights-on, and parents and teachers were asked to note lights-off and lights-on in a sleep diary. Data collected by the actigraph were stored in the internal memory of the device, downloaded to a computer, and analyzed using Actiware software (Philips Respironics, Inc., Bend, OR). Fifteen-second epochs were scored for sleep or wake based on activity levels. Diary and event marker data were used to corroborate actigraphy data. Standard scoring rules were applied to each sleep episode: sleep onset was defined as the first of three consecutive minutes of sleep, and wake onset was the last of five consecutive minutes of sleep (LeBourgeois et al., 2013; Nixon et al., 2008). Sleep episodes were excluded if the actigraph was off-wrist or not working for all or part of the sleep episode.

Sleep measures included: (a) daytime sleep duration—total minutes scored as sleep between daytime sleep onset and wake time, averaged across weekdays; (b) nighttime sleep duration—total minutes scored as sleep between nighttime sleep onset and wake time, averaged across weekdays; (c) total sleep duration—total minutes scored as sleep over a 24-h period, averaged across weekdays; (d) variability in total sleep duration—SD of total sleep duration across weekdays. Weekday sleep was defined as Sunday night to Friday morning. For this study we focused on total sleep duration.

Across the 16 consecutive days that children were asked to wear the actigraphs, children had, on average, 10 weekdays of usable data (M = 10.95, SD = 3.57). Specifically, 0.4% had sixteen scorable days; 13.6% had 15; 15.7% had 14; 14.0% had 13; 11.9% had 12; 8.9% had 11; 5.1% had 10; 6.4% had 9; 5.1% had 8; 3.4% had 7; 3.0% had 6; 3.4% had 5; 4.7% had 4; and, 4.3% had 3. Analyses were based on all usable actigraph data of three weeknights or more (Cremone et al., 2018; de Jong et al., 2016; Thomas & Burr, 2008). Number of usable nights of data was related to child sleep duration (r = 0.14, p =.03) and bedtime routines (r = 0.19, p <.01).

Bedtime Routines

The bedtime routines questionnaire (Henderson & Jordan, 2010) was used to assess bedtime routines. Specifically, caregivers responded to the following questions about each time period (weeknights/weekends): (1) Child performs the same activities before going to bed (e.g., bathe, brush teeth, and listen to story); (2) Child performs activities in the same order before going to bed; (3) Child sleeps in the same place night after night; (4) Child goes to bed at the same time night after night (within 10 min). These eight items were assessed using a Likert scale format: 1 (rarely 0–1 days), 2 (sometimes 2–4 days), or 3 (usually 5–7 days). Cronbach’s α was 0.79. A mean score was calculated using all eight items; higher scores reflect more consistent bedtime routines.

Caregiver Work Hours and Schedules

Caregivers reported their employment status. This was coded as fulltime (35 hours or more), part-time (less than 35 hours), or not working. Information about work schedule was collected with the question: “If currently employed, do you work any night-time hours between 8 pm and 6 am?” Respondents were able to select (1) No; only day shift, (2) Yes, once per month, (3) Yes, once per week, (4) Yes 2–3 nights per week, and (5) I work rotating shifts. A dichotomous variable indicated whether the respondent worked day or nonstandard shifts; respondents were coded 1 if they reported working 2–3 night shifts per week or rotating shifts. All others were coded as 0 indicating they usually worked a regular day shift.

Control Variables

Caregiver Education

Caregiver’s reported education as one of the following: (a) ≤high school or GED; (b) high school or GED; (c) some college; (d) associates degree; (e) Bachelor’s degree; (f) Masters or Doctorate. Education was defined as high school degree/GED or lower = 0 or some college education and higher = 1.

Family Structure

Family structure was defined as 0 = not married or 1 = married or cohabitating. Research has shown that children born to married parents tend to achieve better cognitive and social outcomes, on average, than children born into other family structures (Crawford, Goodman, & Greaves, 2013; Blackwell, 2010).

Caregiver Depressive Symptoms

Caregivers completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) as a self-reported measure of depressive symptomatology. The CES-D contains 20 items assessing the frequency with which symptoms occurred during the preceding week. Items are rated on a four-point scale: Rarely or none of the time (<1 day), some of the time (1–2 days), Occasionally (3–4 days), and Most or all of the time (5–7 days). A summary score was calculated using all 20 items and ranged from 0 to 60, with higher scores reflecting greater symptomatology. The CES-D has well-established reliability (e.g., Cronbach’s α = 0.91; Miller, Anton, & Townson, 2008) and concurrent validity (e.g., r ≥ 0.60; Agrell & Dehlin, 1989) with clinical and self-report assessments of depressive symptoms.

Analytic Plan

Ordinary least squares path analysis (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) was used to examine the direct and indirect effects (i.e., mediated effects via routines) of work conditions (hours and nonstandard schedule) on child sleep (see Figure 1). The direct effect is the unstandardized regression weight in a model predicting child sleep from work conditions (path c’). The direct effect in this model quantifies how two cases that differ by one unit on X (work conditions) are expected to differ on the outcome Y (child sleep), when controlling for the mediator M (bedtime routines). The indirect effect (ab) represents how child sleep is influenced by workplace conditions through a causal sequence in which X (work conditions) influences M (bedtime routines), which in turn influences Y (child sleep). PROCESSv3.4—a macro for SPSS developed by Preacher and Hayes (2008)—tests the statistical significance of the cross product (ab) path. Bootstrapping was used to generate a confidence interval for the indirect effect. Mediation was considered significant if the confidence interval did not include zero. Out of 251 families, missing data ranged from 2.8% on work hours to 7.2% on work shift. The Little MCAR test showed that the data were missing completely at random (MCAR), X2 (2) = 0.30, p = .86. Missing data in regressions were addressed through list-wise deletion. Sample size was limited to 241 due to actigraphy data; families with less than 3 days of usable data (N = 10) were excluded from analyses.

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

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Mediational model: work and child sleep.

Results

Descriptive Data

Descriptive statistics for sleep variables are presented in Table II. Children’s average daily sleep duration measured by actigraphy was 9.57 hours ranging from 7.92 to 11.52 hours per day. For bedtime routines, 68% of caregivers indicated maintaining at least one bedtime routine 5–7 nights per week. Specifically, 86% of caregivers reported that their child usually does the same routines on weeknights. About 72% of caregivers reported that their child did their bedtime activities in the same order on weeknights. About 89% of caregivers reported that their child usually slept in the same place on weeknights. Only 59% of caregivers reported that their child had the same bedtime on weeknights. In terms of caregivers’ work, 12% reported not working, 23% worked 34 h or less, and 65% reported working 35 h or more. Of the caregivers working, 85% reported working day shifts, while 15% worked some nights or rotating schedules. Child age, caregiver education, marital status, and depressive symptoms were related to child sleep duration and bedtime routines; thus, they were included as covariates. Caregivers with Masters/Doctorate degrees reported significantly more bedtime routines and longer child sleep durations compared to parents with a high school degree or less, some college education, or an associate’s degree (routines: F (4, 239) = 7.03, p < .001; Sleep: F (4, 239) = 9.99, p < .001). Caregiver age and sex were also tested as controls but were unrelated to either outcome variable.

Table II.

Child Sleep Descriptives

N Mean (SD) Min. Max.
Actigraph measures of child sleep duration (hours) 241 9.57 (0.65) 7.92 11.52
Less than 9 hours 18.9%
9–10 hours 57.1%
10–12 hours 24.0%
More than 12 hours 0.0%
Child bedtime routines 241 2.62 (0.35) 1.50 3.00
Usually (3) Sometimes (2) Rarely (1)
Same routines on weeknights 86.2% 13.4% 0.4%
Same routines on weekends 69.3% 24.0% 6.7%
Bedtime activities in the same order on weeknights 72.0% 23.2% 4.7%
Bedtime activities in the same order on weekends 55.9% 35.4% 8.7%
Sleep in the same place on weeknights 89.4% 9.1% 1.6%
Sleep in the same place on weekends 80.2% 17.0% 2.8%
Same bedtime on weeknights 59.1% 35.0% 5.9%
Same bedtime on weekends 34.0% 52.6% 13.4%
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Note. Child bedtime routines represent the consistency of routines at bedtime.

Work and Child Sleep Duration

Question 1 evaluated whether caregiver work hours and nonstandard schedules were related to children’s sleep. On average, working longer hours was associated with children’s shorter sleep duration as assessed by actigraphy (B = –9.70, SE = 4.27, p = .02). However, contrary to our hypothesis, caregivers’ work schedules (standard vs. nonstandard) were not significantly related to children’s actigraph-recorded sleep (B = 0.07, SE = 7.91, p = .99).

Work, Bedtime Routines, and Child Sleep Duration

Mediation analyses were run to test our second hypothesis that bedtime routines would mediate the relationship between work (hours and schedules) and children’s sleep.

Work Hours

Bedtime routines significantly mediated the relationship between work hours and actigraph-recorded child sleep (ab = –1.56, 95% CI = –3.82 to –0.03). As presented in Table III and Figure 1, working more hours was related to fewer bedtime routines (a = –0.08, SE = 0.04, p = .034) and, in turn, shorter child sleep durations (b = 19.10, SE = 7.51, p = .011).

Table III.

Mediation Model Coefficients for Bedtime Routines and Work Hours

Caregiver work hours X ACTIGRAPH SLEEP
 Caregiver work schedules X ACTIGRAPH SLEEP
M (BRoutines) Y (Child actigraph sleep) M (BRoutines) Y (Child actigraph sleep)
Antecedent Coeff. SE p Coeff. SE p Coeff. SE p Coeff. SE p
X (Hours) a –0.08 0.04 .03* c’ –8.10 4.32 .06+ – – –* – – –
X (Schedule) – – – – – – a –0.18 0.06 .01* c’ 4.59 7.59 .55
M (BRoutines) – – – b 19.10 7.51 .01* – – – b 20.64 7.86 .01*
Child age 0.00 0.00 .74 −0.44 0.26 .09+ 0.00 0.00 .40 −0.51 0.26 .05+
Education 0.04 0.08 .53 9.50 8.73 .28 −0.01 0.08 .86 7.61 8.78 .39
Marital status 0.23 0.05 < .001** 16.96 6.34 < .008* 0.22 0.05 < .001** 17.39 6.33 .01*
Depressive symptoms 0.00 0.00 0.15 0.58 0.32 .07+ −0.01 0.00 0.05+ 0.50 0.34 .15
Constant 2.64 0.17 < .001** 533.47 27.51 < .001** 2.65 0.15 < .001** 520.00 26.84 < .001**
R 2 = 0.12 R 2 = 0.13 R 2 = 0.14 R 2 = 0.11
F(5,221) = 6.24, p < .001 F(6,220) = 5.34, p = < .001 F(5,215) = 7.64, p < .001 F(6,214) = 4.54, p = <.001
Indirect effect ab=–1.56, 95% CI = –3.82 to –-0.03* ab=–3.77, 95% CI =–-9.77 to–-0.07*
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Note. Hours represents employment status—2, caregiver fulltime work; 1, part time work; 0, not working; schedule, caregiver work schedule; BRoutines, bedtime routines.

Work Schedule

Consistent with our hypothesis, bedtime routines significantly mediated the relationship between work schedule and actigraph-recorded child sleep (ab = –3.77, 95% CI = –9.77 to –0.07). As presented in Table III and Figure 1, compared to day shift workers, caregivers working night or rotating schedules reported fewer bedtime routines (a = –0.18, SE = 0.06, p = .005) and, in turn, shorter child sleep durations (b = 20.64, SE = 7.86, p = .009).

Discussion

The current study found that caregivers’ work hours were not only directly linked to child sleep, but hours and work schedules were also indirectly related to children’s sleep duration via disruptions in bedtime routines. Consistent with our hypothesis and past research (Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su, 2014; Magee et al., 2012), we found that longer work hours were associated with children’s shorter sleep durations. As Role Strain theory suggests (Goode, 1960), the physical toll of caregivers’ long work hours, which cause caregivers to experience fatigue, increased stress and declining mental health (Caruso, 2006; Czeisler, 2011) is directly experienced by their children. However, similar to past research (Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su, 2014), this study did not find a direct relationship between caregivers’ work schedules and children’s sleep. Thus, it may not be that working nights or weekends necessarily has a negative impact on children’s sleep, but rather the negative effects only emerge when family routines are disrupted. Nonstandard work schedules may impact caregivers’ ability to establish and maintain bedtime routines to optimize children’s sleep habits.

Results showed that bedtime routines did indeed mediate the relationship between caregivers’ work and children’s sleep. Both Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su (2014) and Magee et al. (2012) hypothesized that bedtime routines may be one process whereby caregivers work is related to children’s sleep. This study is one of the first to test this process. In support of this hypothesis, results showed that bedtime routines mediated the relationship between caregivers work and children’s sleep. Specifically, longer work hours and shift work were related to fewer bedtime routines and, in turn, shorter sleep durations in children. These results are important because they highlight a critical intervention point. While most parents cannot alter or change their work hours or schedules, parents can take care to implement more consistent bedtime routines. That said, there is no clear statement or policy on what constitutes an optimal bedtime routine (Allen et al., 2016). Recent research by Mindell, Leichman, Lee, Williamson, & Walters, (2017), however, suggest a simple three-step bedtime routine consisting of a bath, massage and quiet activities as an effective, time efficient option for parents. Thus, future research is needed to evaluate what bedtime routines may be most critical in buffering children from parental work.

This study had a number of limitations. In terms of measurement, a more nuanced assessment of workers’ hours, job scheduling, and predictability of work hours would have allowed us to assess how differences in hours and variability in shifts impact parents’ ability to maintain sleep routines. For instance, Kalil, Dunifon, Crosby, & Su (2014) found that working more than 40 h a week was related to longer sleep durations in children, however, the measure of work hours in the current study (e.g., full-time vs. part-time) limited our ability to test for such nuanced differences. Additionally, future studies should consider differences between full-time salaried employment versus hourly employment, as different employee benefits may support parents in maintaining consistent bedtime routines. Similarly, it is important for future studies to distinguish between weekend and weekday work. Long work hours that span into the weekend may have a different impact on children’s bed routines compared to long weekday work hours.

Additionally, with any child study, it is important to evaluate the entire family system. Future studies should assess both parents’ reports of employment conditions. As Magee and colleagues (2012) have shown, parents’ employment conditions may be differentially related to children’s sleep. One parent’s long work hours may not negatively impact a child’s sleep when another parent is at home to maintain bedtime routines. Future studies should evaluate how many caregivers are involved with bedtime routines and whether that shifts throughout the week.

Although we found that the regularity of routines, like bathing, brushing teeth, listening to stories, was important for child sleep, our data do not allow us to distinguish which routines parents used and whether certain routines are more successful than others in inducing sleep. Future studies could utilize nightly diary reports to track what behaviors are involved in bedtime routines and provide specific information about the most effective routines for young children.

Notable strengths of this study include its diverse sample, in terms of race and class, and its use of actigraph sleep data. While parent report and actigraph child sleep are correlated, the greater accuracy and objectivity of actigraph data may have been an important factor—allowing us to measure children’s sleep by the minute as opposed to the half hour or hour.

Overall, this study points to the critical role of bedtime routines as a way for working parents to mitigate the potentially negative effects of long hours or nonstandard work schedules on children’s sleep. Although caregivers work situations may vary, the implementation of bedtime routines can buffer children from the negative effects of parental work, highlighting a key intervention point for families.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Funding

Our research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health [R01 HL111695] awarded to Rebecca M. C. Spencer.

Conflict of Interest

None of the authors have a financial or other conflict of interest related to this project.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Institutional Review Board at the authors’ institution and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent or child assent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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