Mother-Infant Room-Sharing and Sleep Outcomes in the INSIGHT Study

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends infant-parent room-sharing until age 1. We assessed the association between room-sharing and sleep outcomes. The Intervention Nurses Start Infants Growing on Healthy Trajectories study is an obesity prevention trial comparing a responsive parenting intervention with a safety control among primiparous mother-infant dyads. Mothers completed the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire at 4, 9, 12, and 30 months. Reported sleep duration and overnight behaviors, adjusted for intervention group, were compared among early independent sleepers (own room 45 more minutes nightly than those room-sharing at 9 months ( = .004). Room-sharers had 4 times the odds of transitioning to bed-sharing overnight at both 4 and 9 months ( < .01 for both). Room-sharing at ages 4 and 9 months is associated with less nighttime sleep in both the short and long-term, reduced sleep consolidation, and unsafe sleep practices previously associated with sleep-related death.