Common concerns of parents with infants include sleep loss and fatigue, as well as making the important decision of where their child will sleep. This study examined sleep arrangement, sleep fragmentation, and depressive symptoms for mothers across the first nine months of their infant’s life. Maternal emotional availability was used to measure the quality of mother-infant relationship at nine months. Participants included 149 mother-infant dyads recruited by Project SIESTA II. Mothers practicing consistent cosleeping arrangements were significantly associated with higher maternal sleep fragmentation, higher maternal depressive symptoms, and lower emotional availability at bedtime, compared to the consistent solitary sleeping and early switching groups. These results suggest that cosleeping arrangements can indicate poorer maternal sleep, well being, and parenting competency.
