Using Yoga to Reduce Chaos and Improve Preschooler Sleep

The goal of this intervention study is to learn if a yoga-based bedtime routine is feasible for families to follow and to learn if the routine is effective at improving preschooler sleep. The main question it aims to answer is:

Will families be able to follow the routine regularly during the study period? Will following the yoga routine improve household chaos and preschooler sleep? Researchers will compare the yoga group to a control group to see if implementing the yoga routine works better than simple advice to read a bedtime story.

Participants will be asked to visit the lab 4 times. At the first visit, we will measure body size of parents and children, ask parents to complete some surveys, and fit each of them with an activity monitor. One week later, they will return for the second visit. At this visit, we will collect the activity monitor and assign the participants to either the intervention (yoga) or control (bedtime story) group. Families in the intervention group will learn about the intervention and be asked to follow it for the next four weeks. Families in the control group will receive a book and advice about reading stories at bedtime. After four weeks, families will return to the lab for a third visit and we will repeat the measurements from visit 1. Then, families in the intervention group will be asked to follow the yoga routine as much as they would like to for the next 4 weeks. Families in the control group will "cross over" to the intervention group and will follow the yoga intervention for 4 weeks. Then, families will return to the lab for a 4th visit, where we will repeat all of the measures from the first visit and the study will be complete.