As a parent, there are a lot of things you need to consider as your baby grows and develops. One thing that many parents are keen to establish early on is a good sleep and bedtime routine.
Of course, that isn’t always easy to get in place and when you’re struggling to get enough sleep it can make looking after a little one that bit more difficult.
Now, one study in the US, published in the medical journal Pediatrics, has found that babies who sleep in their own rooms from an earlier age tend to sleep for longer than children who share a room with their parents until they’re older.
The researchers got mothers to complete a brief sleep questionnaire when their babies were four, nine, 12 and 30 months old, and compared the data.
It revealed that at nine months old, the early independent sleepers slept for an average of 40 minutes longer each night than those still sharing with their parents, and 26 minutes longer than those who had been put in their own rooms at a slightly older age.
This trend continued and, by 30 months, the children who were sleeping independently by nine months old were getting 45 minutes more sleep each night than those who were still sharing a room with their parents at nine months old.
However, the NHS cautioned that, although the findings show an association between room-sharing and shorter sleep time, there are things not taken into account by the researchers that could have affected the results.
The organisation also pointed out that the study size was relatively small and that sleep patterns were self-reported by parents, which means there may be some inaccuracy in the data collected.
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