Research Ties Infant Sleep Patterns as a Predictor of Negative Emotional Behavior; And the Results Help Provide Parents with Guidelines for Better Emotional Development Confirmation of Your Interview on Tuesday, June 27th! What and Who: As almost any parent can attest, getting their child to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night can often be a challenge. And while for a parent this may be more of an inconvenience, research now reveals that these conditions can actually be predictors of negative emotional development, starting as young as infancy. And while past research has examined sleep patterns for pre-school children, little has been done focusing on infants and toddlers until recently. Study results presented at the 2017 International Congress of Midwives, held June 18th through June 22nd in Toronto, show that for this group later bedtimes and less total sleep in a 24-hour period results in significantly higher expressions of anxiety, depression or withdrawal, separation distress and/or inhibition in both infants and toddlers all which can result in continued social-emotional difficulties as the child grows older. Five sleep-related factors were looked at in the study as predictors. Those were the childâ??s bedtime; the time it took the child to fall asleep; the number of night wakings; the longest continuous sleep period; and the total amount of sleep obtained in a 24-hour period. Available to discuss this study and offer guidance to parents on the best sleep practices for children, including those as young as infancy, is Dr. Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., the author of â??Sleeping Through the Night: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Nightâ??s Sleep.â?? Dr. Mindell is a psychologist in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Childrenâ??s Hospital of Philadelphia, as well as the associate director of the hospitalâ??s Sleep Center. She also chairs the Pediatric Sleep Council and has served as vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the National Sleep Foundation and was on the Board of Directors of the Sleep Research Society. Joining Dr. Mindell for interviews is David Mays, Senior Director, Global Scientific Engagement at Johnson & Johnson Consumer, who is responsible for the development of professional scientific engagement strategy, supporting many consumer divisions at Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Mindellâ??s research was conducted by Childrenâ??s Hospital of Philadelphia and Saint Josephâ??s University in Philadelphia, with support from Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Inc.