Is it a good idea to sleep with your baby? Know what science says about it

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(Gabrielle Fréchet-Boilard and Evelyn Touchet, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)

research , Trois-Rivières (Canada), There is no risk to life in sleeping with your baby, but it is not necessary either. Rather, it is a family choice that you should make with your partner. However, you must have access to reliable information to make the right decisions. The choice of sleeping arrangement for your baby early in life depends on many factors. So-called co-sleeping has become a polarizing topic. Important questions related to the topic often get buried in the storm of information and opinions. Parents may find themselves struggling to choose the best option.

Researchers at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and experts in early childhood and children’s and teen sleep, surveyed scientific studies about co-sleeping to show both sides of the coin.

What do we mean by sleeping together?

• To begin with, sleeping together is a sleeping arrangement. This is not a method used to fall asleep, although sleeping arrangements have a profound effect on this.

• There are two types of co-sleeping arrangements: sleeping together on a common surface, such as sharing the same bed; And sleeping together in the same room, which includes sharing the same sleeping area.

• A recent Canadian study reported that nearly a third of mothers sleep with their babies on the same surface, while 40 percent said they never co-sleep. A study in Quebec in the late 1990s showed that one-third of mothers slept in the same room with their babies.

• The Canadian Pediatric Society says: “For the first 6 months, the safest place for your baby to sleep is in a crib or small bed that’s in your room.”

two sides of thought

After it was revealed in the late 2000s that Canada had a high infant mortality rate (one per thousand), society took a concerned view about co-sleeping.

• The first aspect of consideration focuses on the medical aspects associated with the risks of sleeping with the baby, such as suffocation, suffocation or sudden infant death syndrome.

• The second aspect aims to incorporate the practice of breastfeeding and the cultural and family values ​​they believe co-sleeping promotes.

These two main aspects of consideration exist together, which explains why choosing a sleeping arrangement can be so challenging for parents in the early months.

Better for breastfeeding and communication

Does co-sleeping promote breastfeeding at night? Yes, according to scientific studies. But it is difficult to say whether it is breastfeeding that favors this practice or whether it is the other way around. In any case, breastfeeding is the main reason why mothers choose to sleep together on a shared surface. However, no difference was found between breastfeeding and co-sleeping at night. In other words, sleeping in the same room is just as conducive to breastfeeding as sleeping on a shared surface. The same thing applies to meeting the needs of the child. According to a scientific study, physical contact and closeness in the same room with the parents promotes synchronization of the child’s circadian rhythm. This helps the child to strengthen his sleep. This makes parents more alert to baby’s signals in both types of sleep arrangements. And that, in turn, helps mutual communication and makes it possible to respond easily and quickly to the child’s needs.

Less Stress

While co-sleeping reduces a child’s stress, it depends on the level. One study that asked parents on this topic found that children who experienced one of two co-sleeping arrangements had better cognitive performance by preschool age than children who co-slept for less than six months. I had low anxiety levels.

Another study showed that children who slept with their parents until the age of 12 months had lower stress reactions than children who did not sleep with their parents until this age. However, when a high stress situation (for example vaccination) was compared to a moderate stress situation (for example during bathing), the difference between the two groups was smaller. It should be noted that more testing still needs to be done to fully understand this relationship, and the two types of baby sleeping arrangements were not compared.

more disturbed and fragmented sleep

Children who sleep alone in the beginning of life. Children who sleep together wake up more often than those who sleep together. This is true for parents also.

• A study measuring sleep amount at six, 12 and 18 months showed that groups of babies sleeping together on the same surface or in the same room had more arousal at night, measured by actigraphy at six months. Is measured. Their arousal, as measured by the mothers’ sleep diaries, was higher at six, 12 and 18 months compared to the group of babies who slept alone.

• Over 12 months, those who slept alone had longer average sleep time. These results were obtained after controlling for the type of feeding (breast or bottle). However, the study did not examine whether sleep characteristics differed between the two types of sleep.

• Mothers who slept on the same surface reported that their babies fell asleep more easily and quickly, but woke up more often. He says that he has chosen this system to improve his family’s sleep.

• Generally mothers do not experience any sleep related problems in their children. But when the mothers’ sleep was measured by actigraphy, it was more fragmented and disturbed in the first 18 months than those who opted for a solitary sleep arrangement.

• Another objective study shows that sleeping together on a shared surface over a long period of time (for the first two years of a child’s life) reduces the duration of sleep at night, leading to a greater need for naps during the day. And the proportion of difficulties occurring while sleeping is high.

Is sleeping together on the same surface associated with stronger attachment to the child? This topic is controversial.

Some studies have shown that babies who sleep on a shared surface have stronger attachment bonds than babies who sleep alone.

Others say that there is no positive or negative relationship between parent-child attachment and sleep patterns after the first six months of a child’s life.

parents’ choice

This scientific data will help parents choose the sleeping arrangement that is right for them and their family. The decision depends on the parents’ preference.

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