To avoid stumbling down the hall half asleep in the middle of night, many parents keep new babies in their bedrooms to sleep during the first few months of life. Some parents even allow their infants to sleep in bed with them to provide a midnight feeding and let them drift of to sleep without having to move them. A recent study found this practice may be disruptive to an infant’s sleep.
According to the St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia study, parental presence at bedtime has a negative impact on infant sleep; even more so than co-sleeping. The study examined data from the parents of 29,287 toddlers and infants from Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, United States, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
Lead researcher Jodi A. Mindell, PhD explains that previous studies of parents sharing a bed with their baby were associated with sleep problems including more night wake-ups. Mindell states: “It is likely that it is not the bed sharing or room sharing per se that leads to increased sleep issues rather, most young children who sleep in a separate room fall asleep independently of their parents. These children are able to return to sleep on their own when they naturally awaken during the night, and thus have fewer sleep problems. Children who 
sleep in the same room as their parents usually have a parent helping them to fall asleep at bedtime, and will need that help again throughout the night."
Parents completed an extensive sleep questionnaire and co-sleeping was defined as sharing a bed, room sharing in a separate bed, or sleeping in another room. The results revealed that children who slept in a separate room got more sleep, awoke less frequently in the night, fell asleep faster, had less difficulty at bedtimes, and were perceived as having fewer problems.
The clinically significant differences were mainly found in predominantly Caucasian countries, where 11.8% of parents reported bedsharing and 22% reported sharing a room. Predominantly Asian countries reported much larger rates of co-sleeping with 64.7% and 86.5% respectively. Study authors were surprised to find that in countries of predominate Asian descent; most parents were present at their child’s bedtime.
Tags: nighttime routine
This entry was posted
on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Baby Parenting.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
