Smart wearable technology is providing more accurate information on infant sleep, allowing measurement with napping pants in a child's natural home environment.
Almost half of Finnish parents feel that their infants' sleep is abnormal. However, measuring sleep disturbances is complicated.
In her doctoral thesis, University of Helsinki researcher Sofie de Sena investigated infant sleep using a smart wearable system called NAPPA (NAPping PAnts). It measures infant sleep at home and provides information on body position, respiration and activity.
"This is a substantial leap forward in assessing infant sleep. The smart wearable system monitors the child without interruption, making it possible to monitor sleep without disturbing day-to-day life," says de Sena.
Sleep quality assessment difficult for parents
De Sena compared parental assessments of children's sleep with results obtained from the NAPPA wearables.
"Parents miss brief awakenings altogether, and they overestimate the duration of longer ones. It is important to distinguish between parental estimates of children's sleep and how they actually sleep. Direct measurement is the only route to objective understanding of infant sleep," de Sena points out.
It may be difficult for parents to assess their children's actual sleep quality. For instance, a baby's movements and vocalisations may appear as wakefulness to the parents, even though these are an ordinary part of active infant sleep.
The study also found that sleeping position and its variation relate to infant motor development. This suggests that movement during sleep is part of broader neurological development, at least in terms of motor skills.
Improving care with smart wearables
The findings help to develop more precise sleep monitoring, improving support for children and families.
"Objective, long-term sleep monitoring at home is a great opportunity to investigate early development in children. It also identifies sleep characteristics that are not necessarily conveyed in parental reporting. In the future, sleep assessment with smart wearables could potentially be used in everyday healthcare as part of maternity clinic operations and family guidance," de Sena notes.
Sofie de Sena, MSc, will defend her doctoral thesis entitled ' on 13 August 2026 at 12.00 at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki. The public examination will take place in the Niilo Hallman Hall, HUS Park Hospital at Stenbäckinkatu 11.
