The Benefits of Co-Sleeping

The following information is compiled from Attachment Parenting International's article The Benefits of Co-sleeping, and Dr. Sears' article Scientific Benefits of Co-sleeping.

Further information is also available at:

• The Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory
• The Natural Child Project
• Sarah Buckley M.D.
• Pinky McKay
  
• Why Young Children Protest Bedtime: A Story of Evolutionary Mismatch by Peter Gray, Ph.D.
• Nourished Magazine
• The Family Bed
• Professor James K. McKenna, Ph.D.
• Mothering.com
  

Popular media has tried to discourage parents from sharing sleep with their babies, calling this worldwide practice unsafe. Medical science, however, doesn’t back this conclusion. In fact, research shows that co-sleeping is actually safer than sleeping alone. - Dr. Sears

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Research shows that:

1. Co-sleeping promotes physiological regulation
The proximity of the parent to the infant when co-sleeping has been shown to:

• help the infant's immature nervous system learn to self-regulate during sleep (Farooqi, 1994; Mitchell, 1997; Mosko, 1996; Nelson, 1996; Skragg, 1996)
  
• prevent SIDS by preventing the infant from entering into sleep states that are too deep
  
• help the infant to "remember" to breathe through the parents' own breathing (McKenna, 1990; Mosko, 1996; Richard, 1998), as the carbon dioxide exhaled by a parent actually works to stimulate baby’s breathing
  
• stabilise the infant's temperature (Richard, Mosko & McKenna, 1996)

2. Co-sleeping greatly reduces the risk of SIDS

• Worldwide research shows that the SIDS rate is lowest (and even unheard of) in countries where co-sleeping is the norm, rather than the exception (Nelson e al, 2001; Sankaran et al, 2000; Davies, 1985; Lee et al, 1999; Fukai & Hiroshi, 2000).
  
• Babies who sleep either in or next to their parents’ bed have a fourfold decrease in the chance of SIDS (Blair et al, 1999)
  
• Co-sleeping babies actually spend more time sleeping on their back or side (McKenna, 1994), which decreases the risk of SIDS. 
• A recent large study concluded that bed sharing does not increase the risk of SIDS, unless the mom was a smoker or abused alcohol (Carpenter et al, 2004).
  

3. Co-sleeping is safer than crib sleeping

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission published data that described infant fatalities in adult beds. These same data, however, showed more than 3 times as many crib related infant fatalities compared to adult bed accidents (Drago & Dannenberg, 1999).

4. Both the parents and infant sleep better

• Research shows that co-sleeping infants virtually never startle during sleep and rarely cry during the night, compared to solo sleepers who startle repeatedly throughout the night and spend 4 times the number of minutes crying (McKenna, 1994). Startling and crying releases adrenaline, which increases heart rate and blood pressure, interferes with restful sleep and leads to long term sleep anxiety.
• Because of the proximity of the mother, babies do not have to fully wake and cry to get a response (McKenna, 1994).
• Mothers can tend to the infant before either of them are fully awake (McKenna, 1994). This further results in co-sleeping mothers having more positive evaluations of their nighttime experiences (McKenna, 1994) because they tend to sleep better and wake less fully (McKenna & Mosko, 1997)

5. Babies receive more caregiving

• Co-sleeping increases breastfeeding (Clements, 1997; McKenna, 1994; Richard et al., 1996). Even the conservative American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) admits to the breastfeeding advantages of co-sleeping (Hauck, 1998).
• Mothers who co-sleep breastfeed an average of twice as long as non-co-sleeping mothers (McKenna). In addition to the benefits of breastfeeding, the act of sucking increases oxygen flow, which is beneficial for both growth and immune functions.
  
• Co-sleeping infants also get more attention and protective care. Mothers who co-sleep exhibited five times the number of "protective" behaviors (such as adjusting the infant's blanket, stroking or cuddling) as solitary-sleeping mothers (McKenna & Mosko, 1997). These mothers also showed an increased sensitivity to the presence of the baby in the bed (McKenna).

6. There are long-term benefits, including:

• Higher self-esteem
  - Boys who co-slept with their parents between birth and five years of age had significantly higher self-esteem and experienced less guilt and anxiety (Lewis & Janda, 1988).
  - For women, co-sleeping during childhood was associated with less discomfort about physical contact and affection as adults (Lewis & Janda, 1988).
  - Co-sleeping appears to promote confidence, self-esteem, and intimacy, possibly by reflecting an attitude of parental acceptance (Crawford, 1994).
• Positive behavior
  - In a study of parents on military bases, co-sleeping children received higher evaluations from their teachers than did solitary sleeping children (Forbes et al., 1992).
  - A recent study in England showed that among the children who "never" slept in their parents bed, there was a trend to be harder to control, less happy, exhibit a greater number of tantrums, and these children were actually more fearful than children who always slept in their parents' bed, all night (Heron, 1994).
• Independence
  Heron (1994) found that it was actually the solitary sleeping children who were harder to handle (as reported by their parents) and who dealt less well with stress, and who were rated as being more (not less) dependent on their parents than were the co-sleepers.
• Increased life satisfaction
  A large, cross-cultural study conducted on five different ethnic groups in large U.S. cities found that, across all groups, co-sleepers exhibited a general feeling of satisfaction with life (Mosenkis, 1998)
  

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References

Blair, P. S., Fleming, P. J., Smith, I. J., Platt, M. W., Young, J., Nadin, P. & Berry, P. J., (1999). Babies sleeping with parents: case-control study of factors influencing the risk of the sudden infant death syndrome, British Medical Journal, 319(4): 1457-62.

Carpenter et al.(2004). Sudden Unexplained Infant Death in 20 Regions in Europe: Case Control Study. Lancet; 363: 185-191.

Crawford, M., (1994). Parenting practices in the Basque country: Implications of infant and childhood sleeping location for personality development. Ethos, 22(1):42-82.

Davies. (1985) Cot Death In Hong Kong: A Rare Problem? The Lancet 2: 1346-1348.

Drago D. A. & Dannenberg, A. L. (1999). Infant Mechanical Suffocation Deaths in the United States, 1980-1997. Pediatrics 103, no. 5 (1999): e59.

Farooqi, S. (1994). Ethnic differences in infant care practices and in the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome. Early Human Development, 38(3): 215-20.

Forbes, J. F., Weiss, D.S., Folen, R.A. (1992). The co-sleeping habits of military children. Military Medicine, 157(4):196-200.

Fukai, S. & Hiroshi, F. (2000). 1999 Annual Report, Japan SIDS Family Association. Sixth SIDS International Conference, Auckland, New Zealand.

Hauck, F. R., et al. (1998). Bedsharing promotes breastfeeding and AAP Task Force on Infant Positioning and SIDS. Pediatrics, 102(3) Part 1: 662-4.

Hayes, M.J., Roberts, S.M., & Stowe, R. (1996). Early childhood co-sleeping: Parent-child and parent-infant nighttime interactions. Infant Mental Health Journal, 17(4): 348-357.

Heron, P. (1994). Nonreactive Co-sleeping and Child Behavior: Getting a Good Night's Sleep All Night Every Night. Masters Thesis, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Lee et al. (1999). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Hong Kong: Confirmation of Low Incidence. British Medical Journal 298: 72.

Lewis, R.J., Janda, L.H. (1988). The relationship between adult sexual adjustment and childhood experience regarding exposure to nudity, sleeping in the parental bed, and parental attitudes toward sexuality. Arch Sex Beh,17:349-363.

McKenna, J.J. (1990). Evolution and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: I. Infant responsivity to parental contact. Human Nature, 1(2): 145-177. (See all his references at www.nd.edu/~alfac/mckenna)

Mitchell, E. A., et al. (1997). Risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome following the prevention campaign in New Zealand: a prospective study. Pediatrics, 100(5): 835-40.

Mosenkis, J. (1998). The Effects of Childhood Cosleeping On Later Life Development. Masters Thesis. University of Chicago. Dept. of Human Dev.).

Mosko, S., Richard, C. & McKenna, J. (1997). Maternal sleep and arousals during bedsharing with infants. Sleep 20(2): 142-150.

Nelson, E. A. and Chan, P. H. (1996). Child care practices and cot death in Hong Kong. New Zealand Med. 109(1020): 144-6.

Nelson et al. (2001). SIDS Global Task Force Child Care Study. Early Human Development 62: 43-55

Oppenheim, D. (1998). Perspectives on infant mental health from Israel: The case of changes in collective sleeping on the kibbutz. Infant Mental Health Journal, 19(1): 76-86.

Richard, C., Mosko, S., & J.J. McKenna (1996). Sleeping position, orientation and proximity in bedsharing infants and mothers. Sleep, 19(9): 685-90.

Richard, C. A., et al. (1998). Apnea and periodic breathing in bed-sharing and solitary sleeping infants. Journal of Applied Physiology, 84(4): 1374-80.

Sankaran et al. (2000) “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Infant Care Practices in Saskatchewan, Canada,” Program and Abstracts, Sixth SIDS International Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, February 8-11, 2000.

Skragg, R. K., et al. (1996). Infant room-sharing and prone sleep position in sudden infant death syndrome. New Zealand Cot Death Study Group. Lancet, 347(8993): 7-12.

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