After four months, babies should sleep in different room than their parents

Parents and babies should not be sleeping in the same room, new study suggests, as it leads to less sleep and unsafe sleep habits.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents keep babies in the same room with them to sleep for the first year to prevent sudden infant death syndrome but doctors disagree. A study from Penn University shows that sleeping in the same room leads to less sleep which in turn can add to the parents’ stress levels while lack of sleep in infants has been associated with obesity and poor sleep, later in life.

To study the association between room-sharing and sleep outcomes, researchers used data they had already collected from a study, which included 279 mothers who delivered at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and their babies.

A questionnaire was completed by mothers when their babies were 4 and 9 months old and assessed sleep duration, location, night waking, night feedings, bedtime routines and sleep behaviors. Sleep duration, location and patterns were also assessed at 12 and 30 months.

Doctors found that at 4 months, children who already slept independently in their own room slept in averaged 45 minutes longer. By 9 months, the gap was even wider. Those who learned to sleep independently by 4 months had sleep stretches that averaged 1 hour and 40 minutes longer than babies who were still sleeping in their parent’s room.

And the decision to let babies sleep in their own rooms had long-raging effects. At 30 months, babies who had room shared at 9 months slept, on average, 45 minutes less per night than those who were independent sleepers at 4 and 9 months.

Scientists argue that this alone is sufficient evidence to reconsider the AAP suggestion that parents and babies should sleep in the same room for one year. And as most sudden deaths occur in the first six month, Dr. Ian Paul, professor of pediatrics involved with the study says that there are no reasons to keep children in the same room beyond that age.

“Many pediatricians and sleep experts question the room-sharing recommendation until one year because infants begin to experience separation anxiety in the second half of the first year, making it problematic to change sleep locations at that stage. Waiting too long can have negative effects on sleep quality for both parents and infants in both the short and long term,” said Paul.

Sleeping alone also impacted sleep safety. Babies that slept with their parents also had in their cribs objects that could lead to sudden deaths but what doctors found more worrying was that parents were also more likely to move their infant into their beds, if they slept in the same room.

“Perhaps our most troubling finding was that room-sharing was associated with overnight transitions to bed-sharing, which is strongly discouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics,” Paul said. “Bed-sharing overnight was more common in our sample among 4- and 9-month-olds who began the night on a separate surface in their parents’ room.”

Dr. Ian Paul is now calling on the AAP to reconsider their suggestion.

“Our findings showing poorer sleep-related outcomes and more unsafe sleep practices for babies who room-share beyond early infancy suggest that the American Academy of Pediatrics should reconsider and revise the recommendation pending evidence to support it.”

The doctor is also urging parents to discuss these issues with their pediatrician and he also noted that breastfeeding was not impacted by sleeping in independent rooms, beyond the 4 month mark.

The study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics but it also has some limitations. The analysis was made on predominantly white mothers with a lower number of low-income participants. In this situation, it would be hard to translate the recommendations into lower income homes that may not have a separate bedroom for baby.