Swaddling: a traditional care method rediscovered

Abstract

This study was undertaken to compare the sleep profiles of healthy infants in swaddling and sleeping bag conditions. Polysomnographs of 85 healthy infants (40 in the study group, 45 in the control group) with a mean age of 7.5 weeks were recorded in the sleeping laboratory. A positive decision from the local Ethics Committee and the written consent of the parents were obtained for the study. Swaddling significantly reduces the rate of spontaneous waking (events/h: 1.39 [0.85-2.77] vs. 2.81 [1.49-4.53], P=0.020) and the number of sleep stage changes (events/h: 3.82 [2.97-5.16] vs. 5.37 [3.58-6.67], P=0.015). Swaddling promotes quiet sleep (36.37% [29%-40.31%] vs. 30.2% [24.45%-36.78%], P=0.032), the time spent awake was decreased (8.98% [4.62%-14.25%] vs. 14.17% [9.2%-18.94%], P=0.001) and sleep efficiency was increased (91.02% [85.75%-95.38%] vs. 85.83% [81.06%-90.8%], P=0.001). Swaddling promotes a more quiet sleep in infants.