One of the most basic ways parents make decisions for their babies is by choosing where they sleep. Co-sleeping—where an infant shares a sleeping surface or room with a parent—has been practiced for thousands of years across cultures. In contrast, solitary sleeping, where infants are placed in a separate room, has become the norm in many Western societies. But what does science say about these sleeping arrangements?
While an enormous amount of research has shown infants’ immature physiology requires close proximity from the mother to regulate all their biological systems, less is known about the effects of sleeping arrangements on infants’ physiology.
In this blog, I will share two studies that are in congruence with the body of research that shows that maternal proximity such as skin-to-skin contact or carrying, is coregulatory for babies.
The first study is by Raghunath et al. (1), who explored how different sleeping arrangements impact infants' physiological state. The researchers measured physiological indicators of the state of the autonomic nervous system, such as heart rate variability (HRV) and Interbeat Interval (IBI), in infants who were napping in three conditions: co-sleeping, sleeping beyond arm’s length, or sleeping alone. Infants were between 1- and 3 months........