Mother-Infant Bedsharing is Associated with an Increase in Infant Heart Rate

Abstract

Infant heart rate is affected by the mother's presence in the sleep environment. The increase in sympathetic activity in stages 3 and 4 and rapid eye movement sleep might be partly explained by differences in thermoregulation between bed-sharing and solitary-sleeping environments. These results support the notion that sensory differences between bed-sharing and solitary-sleeping environments account for some of the physiologic differences between infant sleep in the 2 sleeping conditions.