Rozanna Lilley considers the sleeping practices of families around

E
very new parent struggles with the
issue of how best to put their baby to
sleep. Some are staunch advocates
of a separate crib or cot in Mum and Dad’s
bedroom, while others are firm believers in
controlled-crying techniques and a separate
bedroom as providing a solid foundation
for later good sleep habits. An increasing
number of parents in Australia share their
bed with their babies or infants. Some are
prompted to do so by exhaustion; others
by the convenience of breastfeeding in
bed and the joys of newfound intimacy.
Although sleep and sleep problems
loom large in the lives of new parents, few
pause to consider how sleep practices vary
around the world, or the central social and
cultural ideas that are expressed through
the ways in which sleep is organised,
talked about and argued over. In most
societies, babies and children sleep in
close proximity to their mothers. But in
other cultures, infants are expected to sleep
on their own through the night, preferably
without parental assistance.
In Australia, the United States, the
United Kingdom and Northern Europe,
people take for granted that we should
try to sleep for one long period at night.
We believe that our children should do
their best to make it through the night
without us. Each evening, the rituals
of solitary childhood sleep are enacted
in homes throughout our suburbs and
neighbourhoods. Children are put to
bed dressed in special clothes, known as
pyjamas, and offered bedtime stories and
security objects, such as teddies and dolls.
Sometimes there is a night-light to ward
off fears of the encroaching dark. This
bedtime routine, experts tell us, provides
a gradual lessening of stimulation, coupled
with reassurances of safety.
This ritualised isolation and solitude
imposed on young children is not practised
in most of the world. Indeed, in many
The Rituals
Of Rest
Rozanna Lilley considers
the sleeping practices of
families around the world.
to their mother and father as flowing water
is to the earth it has carved away.
In Italy, children are encouraged to
participate in the family’s late evening
activities and, often, to fall asleep in
the company of adults. Italian children
frequently sleep in the same bed or room
as their parents, with some commentators
suggesting this pattern is associated with
a powerful emphasis on family solidarity.
In Papua New Guinea, co-sleeping is the
norm. Neil Maclean, a social anthropologist
at the University of Sydney, told me: “I’m
not aware that anyone puts kids to bed.
Kids go to sleep when they feel like it.”
People fear sorcery attacks, especially at
night. Sleeping together, often on wooden
platforms, provides both company and
some sense of safety.
In Australia’s Aboriginal community,
there is also a marked cultural preference
for co-sleeping. Yasmine Musharbash,
also of the University of Sydney, has been
taking research trips to Central Australia
for more than a decade. She comments:
“People always sleep in the company
of other people. You sleep in a row of
swags or beds or mattresses.” These rows,
known as yuntas, are organised to protect
the vulnerable, with competent senior
adults sleeping at the ends to watch over
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immature mammal at birth, with an
astonishing 75 per cent of brain growth
occurring after birth. We are biologically
designed to rely on external regulation
and support, especially in the first year
of life. That need for intensive prolonged
care is most commonly provided
by mothers. In particular, McKenna
ignited debate with his argument that
mother-and-infant co-sleeping not only
provides the best context for sustained
breastfeeding, but may also play a
potentially protective role in helping to
resist some forms of Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome (SIDS).
According to this view, the
synchronised nocturnal movements of
mother and infant result in a different
pattern of sleep, characterised by increased
arousals, more breastfeeding, increased
heart rate and less deep sleep. Babies may
benefit, McKenna hypothesises, from the
external metronome of parental breathing.
When sleeping together, mothers and
babies are physiologically entwined,
resulting in more frequent shifts between
Children are put to bed dressed in special clothes,
known as pyjamas, and offered bedtime stories and
security objects, such as teddies and dolls. Sometimes
there is a night-light to ward off fears of the encroaching
dark. This bedtime routine, experts tell us, provides a gradual
lessening of stimulation, coupled with reassurances of safety.
cultures, our bedtime rituals would be
perceived as a form of child neglect. For
the vast majority of non-Western cultures,
infants and young children sleep with
their parents, usually their mother. This is
known as ‘co-sleeping’, with bed-sharing
being one variant of this pattern.
Co-sleeping is generally associated
with cultures that place a high value on
interrelatedness and interdependence,
while solitary sleeping is often encouraged
in societies that emphasise autonomy
and independence.
In Japan, for example, children often
co-sleep with other family members until
they are teenagers. Children and parents
sleep on futons with their edges almost
touching. Children sleep between their
parents to symbolise their position as a river
between two banks, as intimately connected
the more vulnerable, including young
children and the frail elderly.
In marked contrast to the examples
above, standard expert advice in
Australia recommends that infants and
young children should fall asleep alone at
bedtime and should stay asleep during the
night. A number of commentators have
argued that this pattern is related to our
cultural ideals of emotional control, selfreliance and independence. Until quite
recently, it was common for advice books,
paediatricians, psychologists and nurses to
dismiss parent–child co-sleeping as poor
parenting, with detrimental side effects
for children and parents alike.
These ideas have been radically
questioned by evolutionary anthropologist
James McKenna. He points out that the
human infant is the most neurologically
different sleep levels from which it is
easier to arouse. This is, he suggests,
actually beneficial to babies.
In Australia, the SIDS and Kids Safe
Sleeping campaign (www.sidsandkids.
org) points to a number of dangers in
co-sleeping,
especially
bed-sharing,
and recommends that babies sleep in
a cot next to their parents’ bed for the
first six to 12 months of life. Especially
among urban economically marginalised
minority groups, bed-sharing has been
associated with high numbers of infant
deaths. In communities characterised
by urban poverty, multiple independent
risk factors for SIDS tend to converge,
including maternal smoking, drug taking
or alcohol consumption, and sleeping
on soft surfaces such as sofas or pillows
that may contribute to suffocation. As
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ndr
A
y
McKenna and colleagues argue, however,
there is no evidence to suggest that bedsharing between babies and non-smoking
breastfeeding mothers increases the risks
of infant mortality.
If we take an historical view, we find
that co-sleeping was the norm in AngloAmerican societies before the 19th Century.
Signs of change began to develop in the
1880s, with parents being instructed to
instil strength and self-sufficiency in their
children through the encouragement of
solitary sleep habits.
The notion of set schedules for
children’s
sleep
was
increasingly
popularised in the 1930s. Parents were
told that modern child training required
orderly schedules. Even a half-hour
variation, they were warned, might result
in restlessness, an inability to concentrate
at school, surreptitious reading in bed
and, worst of all, masturbation. The
popularity of bottle-feeding in the 1950s
reinforced the idea that solitary sleeping
in infants and children was normal.
Today, this belief in the moral value of
uninterrupted solitary infant and child
sleep remains almost sacred.
Despite these pressures to conform to
expert advice advocating solitary infant
and child sleep, as any new parent will tell
you, babies rarely conform to expected
patterns of behaviour.
Understanding the cultural and
historical factors that influence debates
about co-sleeping, as well as being
informed about the potential risks and
benefits of bedding down with babies,
may help parents to make informed
choices. We need to move away from onesize-fits-all recommendations about child
sleeping arrangements, and recognise the
potential validity of a variety of sleeping
practices and beliefs. Broader cultural
values and different family orientations
and experiences interact to influence
sleeping arrangements in all societies.
As long as parents are provided with
information on how to practise that choice
safely, co-sleeping can be beneficial
to all, often extending the duration of
breastfeeding and enhancing the bonds
of intimate connections between parent
and child. n
Rozanna Lilley is a social anthropologist based
at the Children and Families Research Centre at
Macquarie University.
www.webchild.com.au
June 2010 19