Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial to how good you’re going to feel the next day- but when you have young children, sleep quickly becomes a thing of the past.
Whether your child has their own room and crib, or whether you’ve decided to go down the co-sleeping route, no option is easy. Babies and toddlers don’t have a concept of time like adults do, meaning that if it’s 3am and they’re wide awake, then they can’t understand why nobody else wants to stay up with them.
When a video of one mom and dad’s co-sleeping agony was shared on YouTube, we’re sure that parents from all over the world could feel their pain.
The video, titled, “Toddler Keeps Moving in Bed While Parents Try to Sleep Next to Him” was posted by RM Videos and has since been viewed over 1.3 million times, with thousands of people leaving their sympathy for the parents in the comments below.
As the clip begins, it becomes instantly clear why the parents are having such trouble sleeping. It might be late at night, but a hidden night vision camera in the top corner of the room shows that this little toddler is wide awake- and he just wants to have some fun with his parents.
The time-lapse continues for what could be hours, and the little boy doesn’t sleep for the entire time.
He alternates between lying on his mom’s face, and then his dad’s, before standing up at the edge of the bed, sitting on his dad’s knee, and then lying back on his mom’s face again. Mom seems to get a little more preferential treatment than dad, which we’re sure she really appreciates (not).
After watching this video, you might be wondering why on earth anybody would want to co-sleep.
Well, it turns out that aside from the possibility of being kept up all night, co-sleeping actually has some great benefits.
According to Greater Good Magazine, co-sleeping can actually have some biological advantages for your child.
“When parents and babies sleep together, their heart rates, brain waves, sleep states, oxygen levels, temperature, and breathing influence one another.
To a biological anthropologist, this mutual influence implies that the offspring’s growth is intended to occur most safely inside that biological system, near an adult’s body, especially in the first few months of life while the baby’s own physiology is the most immature.”
Co-sleeping can also help parents to develop deep emotional bonds with their children, as well as a deepened sense of love and trust.
Another argument points out that co-sleeping can be risky, and sharing a bad with a baby is associated with an increased risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) including sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
If you’ve made it through this video and are interested in co-sleeping, it’s worth doing your research before you let your child into your bed at night.
You can watch the video of the energetic little toddler below- though be warned, it might put you off having kids for a while!
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