CHILDHOOD & PARENTING
Does Culture Impact How A Baby Sleeps?
What The Studies Actually Say About How Babies Should Sleep | Part IV
Over the last couple of days, we’ve been exploring the brilliant paper by Elaine Barry, which compiled the known research on infant sleep to develop an overarching view of what we actually know about how babies sleep. So far, we’ve looked at the historical perspective, the medical view, and the anthropological approach. We’ve found some interesting information here or there, but overwhelmingly the data seems to be saying that we don’t know much about how babies are supposed to sleep and what we, as adults, can do to help them out.
The Sociocultural View Of Infant Sleep
In the most basic form, the sociocultural view of infant sleep involves the idea that there might not be a single form of normal baby sleep that we can use as a measuring stick against our children. It’s completely possible that infant sleep habits, norms, and needs might vary depending on chronological, historical, geographic, cultural, and social structure environmental forces around the world. Quite simply, different cultures and societies might result in different sleep structures for babies.
