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A Novel Approach to Improving Sleep in New Parents: Safety Reactivation with a Baby-Responsive Soundtrack

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 2026, 3:00 – 5:00 pm PST, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Alejandro Cruz Basilio¹ (alecruz@u.northwestern.edu), Jeongeun Kim¹, Marcia Grabowecky¹, Ken A. Paller¹; ¹Northwestern University

Disrupted sleep is prevalent among new parents. A prime contributor is sleep-hypervigilance, when alertness persists during sleep (e.g., when monitoring for any noise or vocalization from the infant). This hypervigilance produces sleep-fragmentation. Potential consequences include postpartum depression, relationship dissatisfaction, and physical-health problems. Targeted-Memory-Reactivation (TMR) research demonstrates that people can be influenced in various ways by auditory stimuli during sleep. Perhaps TMR can influence sleep quality. Here we investigated whether, in new parents, reactivating the concept of infant safety could reduce hypervigilance and improve sleep. We employed a multiple-baseline design. During a daytime-conditioning phase, new parents associated a neutral soundtrack with infant safety. At night, this safety soundtrack was delivered to the sleeping parent via a baby monitor. A real-time algorithm on a custom smartphone app placed near the infant monitored for distress; when a cry was detected, the safety sound paused and an alert sound signaled that parental intervention may be needed. When the safety sound remained uninterrupted, it served as a cue that the infant was safe, which we hypothesized could reduce unnecessary hypervigilance. Sleep was assessed via objective and subjective measures over a 2- or 3-week period. We found that auditory safety reactivation increased subjective sleep quality, positive affect, and total sleep duration (estimated from movement/heart-rate-monitoring). The intervention also reduced awakenings to minor sounds, overnight alertness, daytime sleepiness, and negative affect. We hope to confirm these initial findings with further data collection, but nevertheless conclude that we’ve developed a safe, inexpensive, and scalable intervention with potential sleep-enhancing benefits.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Auditory