Insomnia Clinical Trials

Experimental: bedtime checking

The intervention is based on the principles of graduated extinction, defined as an effective and recommended therapy in the treatment of bedtime problems and night-wakings by the AASM. The basic guidelines for this intervention are: (1) When the infant shows tired signs, he/she should be put to bed awake; (2) parents should minimize their involvement after putting the infant to bed; (3) if the child protests/cries, the parent should check the infant's crib every few minutes (e.g., 5 minutes), briefly comfort the infant without taking him/her out of the crib, and help the infant resume a sleeping position/find sleep aids (e.g., pacifier); (4) disengage and leave the crib until the next visit, (5) In order to increase consistency, the same parent should implement the intervention.~In the bedtime checking arm, parents will be instructed to implement the changes only at bedtime and will be asked to continue soothing their infant at night, as they normally do

Active_comparator: standard checking

Same as for bedtime checking at bedtime, but in the standard checking arm, parents apply the intervention guidelines also when the infant wakes up during the night.

No_intervention: Wait-list control group (WL-CTRL)

Participants in this arm are placed on a wait-list for 5 weeks. During this period, they receive no active intervention but complete all baseline assessments. At the 5-week follow-up (from baseline), these families only complete an infant sleep questionnaire (The Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire) to serve as a control comparison for the primary outcomes. Following this assessment, the wait-list period concludes; families will receive a detailed explanation regarding both the bedtime checking and standard checking interventions and will be given the opportunity to choose between them for their own use.