Categories: Backed by Science

Bed-sharing, co-sleeping, or separate sleeping?

Recently, there has become a clear distinction between co-sleeping and what experts now refer to as bed-sharing. In order to decide what is best for your family, it is important to know the difference.

According to Attachment Parenting International (API), the definitions are as follows:

“Co-sleeping refers to sleeping in ‘close proximity’, which means the child is on a separate sleep surface in the same room as the parents.”

“Bed-sharing, also called the ‘family bed’, describes a sleep arrangement where the family members sleep on the same surface.”

Henrik Norholt

Dr. Henrik Norholt is a member of The World Association of Infant Mental Health. He holds a Ph.D. from the LIFE faculty of Copenhagen University and is a resident of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been studying the effects of baby carrying as it relates to child psychological and motor development through naturalistic studies since 2001.

He is actively engaged in the study of current and past research into baby carrying through his large international network of family practitioners, midwives, obstetricians, pediatricians and child psychologists and shared his insights with the subscribers to Ergobaby’s blog.

Henrik Norholt