Co-sleeping Resources

Co-sleeping (often spelled cosleeping, and also known as bed sharing or having a family bed) is the practice of keeping your infant with you when you sleep, either directly in your bed or on a sleeping surface next to your bed.

Barbora Bálková, CC BY-SA 3.0

Co-sleeping promotes breastfeeding, healthy bonding, and secure attachment, and it is safer than isolated crib/cot sleeping when practiced correctly.

Co-sleeping beyond the breastfeeding years is common in many non-Western cultures, and even in the West many families choose to extend co-sleeping through toddlerhood or early childhood.

Infants and children sleeping in isolation is a modern cultural practice to which the human species is not adapted. Our young thrive and grow optimally when they feel safe — in close proximity to familiar, nurturing caregivers — especially during sleep when they are most vulnerable. Modern parents have been misled to believe the practice is inherently dangerous, but if that were true, the human species would not have survived co-sleeping for hundreds of thousands of years, before the separation of infants from their parents at night came into vogue.

Open-minded parents who’ve learned to “think outside the crib” are discovering that co-sleeping is one of the simplest, easiest ways to give their children a healthy start in life.

Learn more about co-sleeping...

• Safe Cosleeping Guidelines
  cosleeping.nd.edu/safe-co-sleeping-guidelines
• Frequently Asked Questions
  cosleeping.nd.edu/frequently-asked-questions

• The Natural Child Project, co-sleeping articles
  www.naturalchild.org/articles/sleeping.html
• Ask Dr. Sears, author of The Attachment Parenting Book
  www.askdrsears.com/?s=co-sleeping
• Study: “Cosleeping is twice as safe”
  cosleeping.org/articles/cosleeping-twice-as-safe
• CoSleeping page on Facebook
  www.facebook.com/CoSleeping
• Co-sleeping on Wikipedia
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-sleeping

Updated: February, 2023