Bedtime Story

McKenna, James J., Natural History

For as far back as you care to go, mothers have followed the protective and convenient practice of sleeping with their infants. Even now, for the vast majority of people across the globe, "cosleeping" and nighttime breast-feeding remain inseparable practices. Only in the past 200 years, and mostly in Western industrialized societies, have parents considered it normal and biologically appropriate for a mother and infant to sleep apart.

In the sleep laboratory at the University of California's Irvine School of Medicine, my colleagues and I observed mother-infant pairs as they slept both apart and together over three consecutive nights. Using a polygraph, we recorded the mother's …

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Publication information: Article title: Bedtime Story. Contributors: McKenna, James J. - Author. Magazine title: Natural History. Volume: 106. Issue: 9 Publication date: October 1997. Page number: 50+. © American Museum of Natural History Dec 2008/Jan 2009. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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