Silent night: Babies sleep better if they have their own room by four months
Babies sleep better if they have their own bedroom by the age of four months, according to scientists.
Babies sleep better if they have their own bedroom by the age of four months
Slumber is more disturbed if infants carry on sharing – and that raises the risk of obesity later in childhood.
Parents are told to keep babies in their bedroom for the first year to prevent sudden infant death syndrome.
There were 230 sudden infant deaths in the UK in 2014, following a downward trend in the last decade. In 2001, there were 330.
But a study of 279 mothers, published in Paediatrics in the US, found uninterrupted sleep lasted an average 45 minutes longer if babies were moved out at four months.
Those in parents’ rooms managed the same amount of sleep – but it was more staggered.
And at nine months, babies in their own rooms slept 40 minutes more at night and over 20 minutes longer overall, than those sharing a room.
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And at nine months, babies in their own rooms slept 40 minutes more at night
Ian Paul, of Pennsylvania State University, said: “Our most troubling finding was room sharing was associated with overnight transitions to bed sharing, which is strongly discouraged by the American Academy of Paediatrics.
Inadequate infant sleep can lead to obesity, poor sleep later in life and a negative effect on parents.”