Should Child Sleep With Parents

Should Child Sleep With Parents

Parenthood is a great blessing but it needs a lot of energy. Sleep makes a huge difference not only to our body, but also the quality time that we spend with our kids. If we are exhausted or sleep deprived, our patience levels are low and there is a higher tendency to get irritated and not enjoy raising the kids. In some cases, less sleep can lead to serious medical problems.

Should you allow your child to sleep alone?

Try asking this question to your child and see their responses. In most of the situations, it so happens that they would like to sleep only with the parents.

Research shows the ideal situation is where parents and kids are sleeping in their own rooms. That would foster independence in a child and give enough privacy and quality time to parents; to spend with each other as a couple. But there are instances where the child is afraid to be alone, has nightmares, or just keeps waking up at night, sneaking into parents bed. This can be very exhausting.

In India at least 95% of the children are sleeping in the same bed with their parents until they are 3 or 4 years old. The only exemption will be if there is a younger child came into the family. But still the parents will allow the elder one to sleep on their bed and later take them to another bed. It helps the children to have a better attachment to their parents.

Children who sleep separately with their parents find it scary to sleep alone, they wake up many times with fear or loneliness in the room, but the children who share beds with their parents take proper and peaceful sleep, the reason is that they feel physiologically safer.

I found an article that lists how some advantages of co-sleeping and tips as well to do it right. Here's an excerpt from it...
"Co-sleeping is a practice which is often debated in the West, but if done right, can actually be quite beneficial for the child. Many experts are of the opinion that co-sleeping helps to build a stronger bond between parents and babies. In his book, Good Nights: The Happy Parents' Guide to the Family Bed, Dr. Jay Gordon, states that children who sleep with their parents become independent faster because they do not experience separation anxiety. "When a child routinely goes to sleep in the presence of an adult, or with an adult, they are unlikely to take up thumb-sucking or get attached to security objects," he explains."

They sleep well when they feel secure. Knowing mom is close will likely help baby sleep better and fuss or cry less in nights.

Children who sleep next to parents, find with more stable temperatures, regular heartbeats, and proper breathing compared to kids who sleep alone.

Sleeping together as a family develops strong bonding among the child as well as with both the parents, because it’s only during night time the child can share stories and the parents can engage in true conversations and true love and bonding develops.

Most of the child has the habit of passing urine onto their pants till late age ( in some situations) and parents close to the child can help replace the clothes for the child ( and acts as a means to prevent infection spreading for the child)

Most of the child has the habit of putting their thumb on to their mouth till late age and the presence of parents next to them can help prevent this ( or at least take the thumb out of their mouth)

“Challenges”

The only challenge I can think of is the sensual pleasures between the couple is lost, but can still be enjoyed by observing deep sleep parameters of the child and in most cases where the couples are living with their parents, this issue gets solved as the after the child spends time with the parents it gets to sleep with his and/her grandparents.