Co-Sleeping Research Paper

Co-Sleeping - Is It Beneficial or Does It Do More Harm Than Good? Co-sleeping, or young children or infants sharing the bed or room with a primary caregiver(s), has been deemed by the media as a possibly harmful habit yet it is heavily prevalent among families in the United States. In contrast, health-care providers commonly advise co-sleeping on the basis that it could have the ability to create ease of falling asleep for infants. In Western cultures, it is often difficult to see the idea of a “family bed” as normal despite its heavy prevalence. Research places weight on both sides of the argument of whether co-sleeping does more harm than good. Although there is a heavy amount of evidence claims that co-sleeping is hazardous and causes …show more content…
A 1996 study done by research professor Betsy Lozoff supported the belief that co-sleeping created such problematic sleep environments with a focus on race and socioeconomic status. While gathering data from families’ self-reports, Lozoff discovered that co-sleeping was more common those who are white with low socioeconomic status. This study also found that bedtime protesting was high among co-sleeping black families compared to not co-sleeping black families. Frequently waking up, and having a difficult time initially falling asleep may be increased when linked to co-sleeping according to Lozoff’s …show more content…
Studies have shown that co-sleeping can be linked to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) causing a great rift against the co-sleeping movement. One in particular took place at the University of Texas at Austin where the hazards of co-sleeping on adult-sized beds was the main focus. A review of data on deaths of children 2 years old or younger in adult beads from 1990 to 1997 was compiled and analyzed. 515 of those deaths were due to suffocation and strangulation while sleeping in an adult-bed. This led to the assumption that adult-beds were unsafe environments for children age 2 and younger to sleep in. (Nakamura, 1999) An additional study that greatly boosted the idea that co-sleeping is hazardous is a cross-sectional study that took place from 2004 to 2012. The study compared co-sleeping death reports of younger and older infants and categorized them into bed-sharing, not bed-sharing, location, and position. Results showed that younger infants had a great risk factor of dying while bed-sharing in an adult bed. (Colvin, 2014) This study caused the public to go haywire, and create a dangerous image of the repercussions of