Researchers found parents who reported more sleeping problems themselves also described more sleeping problems in their children, but these children’s actigraph readings actually showed fewer sleep disturbances than the parents reported.

Authors of the study say tired parents may be biased when it comes to estimating their children’s sleep quality, compared to parents who don’t suffer from sleep problems.

The findings highlight the importance of factoring in a parent’s sleep quality when diagnosing, treating and researching sleep disturbances in children, they say.