By: John Seabrook

In: New Yorker, October 2015

• Babies and sleep.
  • Polyphasic sleep.
    • Babies tend to sleep in bouts, not distinguishing between night and day.
    • Opposite of monophasic sleep: one seven- or eight-hour chunk at night.
  • REM sleep (dream stage).
    • Plays an important role in structural development of baby’s brain.
      • 32 week fetuses are in REM sleep virtually all the time.
      • Infants are in REM sleep twice as much as adults.
    • Unlike adults, babies are not “paralyzed” during REM stage.
• Against co-sleeping:
  • More convenient for the parents.
  • Babies develop some sense of “independence”.
    • But… switch dependence from parents to blankies, bears, etc.
  • Some evidence that babies that sleep alone wake up fewer times during than night.
• In favor of co-sleeping:
  • More common than though (many parents won’t admit to it).
  • Working mothers: only time they can spend with the baby is at night.
  • Often evolves out of night-time breastfeeding.
  • Less of a stigma in lower income families.
  • Mother and baby may develop similar (deep) sleep rhythms.
• Sleep deprivation (see “The Drive with Peter Attia – Matthew Walker” and “Sleep“).
  • Deep sleep: needed to replenish neurotransmitters and growth hormone.
  • REM sleep: needed to consolidate and fixate memories.
• Wakefulness versus sleep.
  • Sleep is not “rest for the mind”.
    • Brain is quite active (only 20% decrease in neuronal activity during sleep).
  • Wakefulness and sleep are similar states.
    • Wakefulness = modulated by sensory inputs.
    • Sleep = modulated by neuronal inputs.
• Ferber – “Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems”.
  • Method of getting a child to go to sleep by himself.
  • Theory of associations (Pavlov).
    • Adult: falling asleep = pillow.
    • Baby: falling asleep = being comforted after crying, parent’s bed, etc.
  • Method doesn’t necessarily work for everyone.
    • Different baby = different solution (including sometimes co-sleeping).