Table 1.
Descriptive Statistics for Sleep, Parental Stress, and Relationship Satisfaction. Both Parents in a Couple Wore Actigraphs and Filled Out Daily Ratings for One Week (Sleep Diary in the Morning and Ratings of Parental Stress and Relationship Satisfaction in the Evening)
| Mothers (n=67) | Fathers (n=67) | Measure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objective measures | |||
| TST | 407 (41) | 369 (66) | Minutes, median (IQR) |
| WASO | 59 (30) | 58 (33) | Minutes, median (IQR) |
| Sleep efficiency | 85 (6) | 83 (6) | Percent, median (IQR) |
| Number of wake periods longer than 1 minute | 11 (7) | 11 (7) | Count, median (IQR) |
| Number of wake periods longer than 5 minutes | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | Count, median (IQR) |
| Sleep sufficiency index | 87 (13) | 82 (16) | Percent, median (IQR) |
| Subjective measures | |||
| Sleep duration | 451 (42) | 420 (70) | Minutes, median (IQR) |
| Number of awakenings | 2.6 (1.1) | 1.6 (1.0) | Count, mean (SD) |
| Sleep quality | 2.9 (0.6) | 3.3 (0.6) | Scale 1–5, mean (SD) |
| Sleep sufficiency | 3 (1.1) | 3.1 (0.9) | Scale 1–5, median (IQR) |
| Parental stress | |||
| Parental stress index | 2.2 (0.6) | 2.1 (0.6) | Scale 1–5, mean (SD) |
| Relationship satisfaction | |||
| Relationship satisfaction | 2.5 (0.8) | 2.6 (0.6) | Scale 1–5, mean (SD) |
Notes: Objective sleep sufficiency was measured as the actual sleep divided by the time each participant assessed they would need for a sufficient night of sleep. Subjective sleep sufficiency was assessed by each participant every morning by on a scale from 1 - “no, definitely too little” and 5 - “yes, definitely enough”. Parental Stress Index was measured with four questions, adapted from the Berry & Jones Parental Stress Scale,21 which was scored between 1 – “strongly disagree” and 5 – “strongly agree”. The score of the last item was reversed and the average score formed the Parental Stress Index for that day. Relationship satisfaction index was measured with one question, namely “How satisfied are you with your interaction with your partner today?, ”which was scored by each parent every night between 0–4 with 0 - “not satisfied at all” and 4 - “very satisfied”.
Abbreviations: WASO, wake after sleep onset; TST, total sleep time; SE, standard error; CI, confidence interval IQR, interquartile range; SD, standard deviation.