Unveiling the Science of Sleep in Neonatal Care with Eline de Groot and Christy Gliniak

In this episode, host Mary welcomes Eline de Groot, a passionate sleep researcher from the Netherlands, and Christy Gliniak, a key figure at the National Association of Neonatal Therapists. The guests discuss their journeys, trauma-informed care, and their latest focus on sleep in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Eline shares her groundbreaking research on sleep patterns in preterm infants and its impact on brain development, while Christy underscores the importance of integrating this research into clinical practice to improve patient outcomes. The conversation highlights the critical role of sleep as 'free medicine' and the importance of co-regulation and attunement in neonatal care.   00:00 Welcome and Guest Introductions 00:45 Journey to Trauma-Informed Care 02:00 Challenges and Growth in Neonatal Therapy 03:49 Leadership and Education in Healthcare 05:59 The Importance of Sleep in Neonatal Care 12:05 Elena's Research Journey 28:18 Developing the BeSSPI Tool 34:07 Global Impact and Future Directions 42:03 Final Thoughts and Reflections   Cool Links to check out:  Sleep Discovery Lab of UMC Utrecht: https://www.umcutrecht.nl/nl/sleep-discovery-lab?lang=en Eline's profile page of Utrecht University: https://www.uu.nl/staff/ERdeGroot Christy's LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christy-gliniak-9a679699/ de Groot et al. (2022). Creating an optimal observational sleep stage classification system for very and extremely preterm infants Wang, de Groot, Tataranno et al. (2024): Machine Learning-Derived Active Sleep as an Early Predictor of White Matter Development in Preterm Infants