A University of Helsinki researcher who clipped motion sensors to 97 babies' diaper covers found that parents who share a bedroom with their infant report noticeably more nighttime awakenings than those whose babies sleep elsewhere. The sensors recorded no matching difference. The babies were no longer waking up. The parents were simply catching more of it.
Sofie de Sena defends the doctoral thesis containing that work on Thursday at the University of Helsinki, and the finding lands in the middle of one of the most emotionally loaded questions in early parenting: whether the baby is sleeping badly, or whether the household is.
