Mothers have been warned for years that sleeping with their newborn infant increases the risk for SIDS or suffocation. But now Israeli researchers are reporting that even sleeping in the same room is associated with poor sleep not for the child, but for the mother.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, including Pediatric Sleep Council expert Liat Tikotzky, wanted to see whether sleeping in the same room as their 3- and 6-month-old infants was related to mothers’ or babies’ sleep. The short answer: It did. Mothers who shared a room with their infants had more night wakings and were awake for longer periods during the night than mothers whose infants slept in a separate room.
Read the full article by Joe Palca summarizing the research here.