Social experiences in infancy and early childhood co‐sleeping

Abstract

Infancy and early childhood sleep-wake behaviours from current and retrospective parental reports were used to explore the relationship between sleeping arrangements and parent-child nighttime interactions at both time points. Children (N ¼ 45) from educated, middle-class families, mostly breastfed in infancy, composed a convenience sample that was recruited from a university preschool in the Northeast US. Parents responded to the Sleep Habits Inventory, a 19-item Likert-style inventory measuring sleep-related behaviours during the last week, and the Sleeping Arrangements Questionnaire, a 30-question, openended, short-answer-style instrument which queries both retrospective infancy and current sleep location, bedtime routine, night waking and parent-child interactions during the sleep period. Co-sleeping in early childhood was associated with sleep location in infancy (i.e. proximity to the mother's bed) during wake-sleep transitions and night feedings. Security object use during infancy was inversely related to early childhood cosleeping (calling for the parents, night waking, poor bedtime routine and fear of the dark). Results showed that early childhood co-sleeping in this sample was reactive, i.e. associated with current parent-seeking, night waking and social contact during wake-sleep transitions. These findings suggest that co-sleeping in early childhood is related to social experiences during infancy, particularly the amount of parent social contact and security object use.

Temperament and sleep–wake behaviour from infancy to toddlerhood

“…Sleep regulation is strongly promoted as a developmental milestone by parents, and is related to parental practices regarding parent-child sleep proximity during infancy (Hayes, Robert, & Stowe, 1996; Hayes, Fukumizu, Troese, Sallinen, & Gilles, 2007). In the current study, parental sleep practices and co-sleeping or night-time proximity to the parents’ bed at 16 months were found to be unrelated to infant temperament or sleep problems.…”

Co‐sleeping during infancy and early childhood: key findings and future directions

“…As a case in point, higher rates of all-night co-sleeping were found in urban Latino families compared to middle-class Caucasian families in a study conducted by Schachter, Fuchs, Bijur, and Stone (1989); however, in that study, frequent part-night co-sleeping was significantly lower and less normative among Latino families. Hayes, Fukumizu, Troese, Sallinen, and Gilles (2007) observed that the unstable nature of part-night co-sleeping may be relevant for the development of sleep disturbances. Ball (2007) makes the point that asking parents whether any bedsharing occurred would produce a much higher prevalence rate than asking whether bedsharing occurred over a given threshold of a certain number of nights per week and hours per night, or restricting the use of the term to full-night, every night bedsharing.…”

“…This term has its origins in the writing of Lozoff, Wolf, and Davis (1984), but this subgroup has been rather understudied until recently. With some variability across studies, reactive co-sleeping refers to children who start to share or return to the parents' bed as toddlers or preschoolers following an extended period of solitary sleeping during infancy (Hayes et al, 2007;Keller & Goldberg, 2004). Ramos and colleagues (2007) also use the term to capture an unplanned, unwanted cosleeping arrangement, defining reactive co-sleeping as children who co-sleep because they have difficulty sleeping alone even though the parents prefer separate sleep arrangements.…”

“…As pointed out by Hayes et al (2007), the central nervous system mechanisms that control sleep and waking mature gradually from infancy to early childhood (Salzarulo & Fagioli's study, as cited in Hayes et al, 2007). Over the course of the first two years, night-time sleep efficiency increases and night wakings decline in frequency and duration (Louis, Cannard, Bastuji, & Challamel's study, as cited in Hayes et al, 2007).…”

Sleep arrangements and night waking at 6 and 12 months in relation to infants' stress‐induced cortisol responses

“…New to this study, a sleep arrangement variable was created that represented relative proximity or physical closeness to parents while sleeping (see also Hayes, Fukumizu, Troese, Sallinen, & Gilles, 2007). Solitary sleepers had the most distal sleep arrangement, as they were reported to sleep in their own room all night (6 m: 38%, n 5 33; 12 m: 54%, n 5 47).…”