Benefits of Co-Sleeping and Bed Sharing With Your Baby

My little man sleeping soundly after a night time feeding

Have you heard of Co-Sleeping or Bed Sharing? Here is the formal definition from google:

Co-sleeping: the practice of parents and young children sleeping in the same bed.

Bed sharing and co-sleeping are essentially the same thing, so I will be using the terms interchangeably throughout this article.

So, now that you know what bedsharing is, what are the benefits? How can it help both you and baby?

#1: Baby Will Fall Asleep Faster And Stay Asleep Longer

As a mom, when we hear the words “baby” and “sleeping longer/better” in the same sentence we tend to get pretty excited, and with good reason too!

If your baby tends to wake more often during the night than you’d prefer, or they seem to have trouble falling asleep alone, then maybe co-sleeping is the right option for you and your baby.

Speaking from personal experience here for a moment…

When I had my son, the hospital I had him at had my boyfriend and I watch videos on safe sleep. They even gave us a sleep sack with the words “back is best” and an “ABC’s of sleep” magnet.

So naturally, when we took our little man home from the hospital we followed the ABC’S of sleep like we were taught in the hospital.

We put our son alone, on his back, in his crib. My heart felt like it wasn’t exactly the right thing to do, but since it was what the hospital recommended to us it is what we did until he was about a month old.

And let me tell you, that month was ROUGH. My son would barely sleep for 30-45 minutes by himself in the crib without waking up fully crying.

As new parents, we didn’t really understand what the issue was. This was our first baby, so we were pretty much clueless.

That’s when I began looking into Co-Sleeping and Bedsharing and the attached benefits.

After researching bedsharing and cosleeping safety, we began cosleeping. Ever since we started sharing the bed with baby, our son has slept 2 hours at nap time.

He will now sleep 4-5 hours on his own at night before waking to eat and get a new diaper.

The difference was literally like night and day. We are both able to get more sleep, and it totally rocks!

#2: Nighttime Crying Is Decreased

When babies are far away from their parents in another room and separate bed, it can be hard to notice the signs and signals baby gives off that he or she needs something, like to be fed, changed or comforted.

Having a baby monitor can help, but co-sleeping makes tending to your babies needs even easier, and allows you to recognize the signs that your baby needs something before they begin crying.

Crying is the last signal that a baby will give when they need something from you, so having them close to you at night and being able to tend to them quickly will reduce nighttime crying spells.

This is a big plus if you have other children, live with family members who work early in the mornings or live in an apartment complex with lots of neighbors and you worry about nighttime crying.

Speaking again from personal experience here…

When my son was in his crib for the first month of his life, we only knew it was time to tend to him at night when we were woken up by the piercing sound of his cry. It always breaks my heart to hear him cry, especially during the night.

As soon as we began bedsharing, the nighttime crying almost completely stopped.

Because he is now always by my side at night, I am easily able to wake up when I hear him stir in his sleep. That gives me extra time to tend to his needs (make a bottle, get a new diaper ready, etc) before he ever starts crying.

I’ve also noticed that because he isn’t crying at night now, he is able to transition back into sleep faster and easier too. That’s definitely a plus for those 2am and 5am feedings!

#3: It Makes Feeding Baby At Night So Much Easier

Whether you breastfeed or bottle feed, bedsharing with your little one will make night time feedings a breeze.

Instead of getting up out of bed, calibrating yourself awake, struggling to get baby out of bed and fed, then trying to put baby back down to sleep like you would without cosleeping, all you need to do is roll over, latch baby on (or give them the bottle) and feed baby.

After your baby is finished eating, it will be easier for you both to fall back asleep since you are both already in bed.

Not only does co-sleeping help ease the process of nighttime feedings, but it can also help to boost your milk supply.

Having baby close means that he can latch on often. Because milk production is a supply and demand system, latching baby on more frequently will mean that more milk will be produced.

More milk=fuller baby belly= longer baby sleep=rested mama=better baby care. It’s a win win!

#4: Your Bond With Your Baby Will Be Stronger Than Ever

Sleeping in the same bed as your baby allows for lots of physical closeness, which has several benefits for both mom and baby.

When you snuggle up to someone you love, the hormone oxytocin is released into your brain. This is commonly known and referred to as the “love hormone”.

When oxytocin is released in your brain when snuggling your baby, it deepens your love and strengthens your bond with your child.

What is super amazing too is that oxytocin isn’t just working in your brain when cosleeping with baby, but it is also working in your baby as well.

Every time you snuggle your child to sleep, his/her bond with you is growing deeper and stronger. What a beautiful thing.

Are you ready to disassemble your child’s crib right now and put it up for sale on Facebook Marketplace after reading this article? Yeah. That’s basically how I felt too after reading up on the benefits of bedsharing.

But, before you go getting rid of the crib for good, it is important to learn about and know the guidelines of sleeping safety while bedsharing.

Click here to read the 7 tips for safely bedsharing with your baby.

Xoxo,

Lia