Using complexity science to understand the role of co-sleeping (bedsharing) in mother-infant co-regulatory processes

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Developmental psychology
• Complexity science

Background:

• Human infant sleep patterns mature over the first few years, aligning with adult sleep cycles.
• Co-sleeping is an ancient behavior integral to the mother-infant evolutionary environment.
• This behavior is key to understanding infant sleep regulation's evolutionary role.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate literature on mother-infant co-sleeping and co-regulatory processes.
• To examine these processes from an evolutionary and complexity science perspective.
• To conceptualize the mother-infant dyad as a complex adaptive system (CAS).

Main Methods:

• Interdisciplinary literature review.
• Conceptual integration of co-sleeping and co-regulatory data.
• Application of complexity science principles to the mother-infant dyad.

Main Results:

• The mother-infant dyad functions as a complex adaptive system (CAS).
• CAS framework explains regulatory processes in mother-infant interactions.
• CAS model highlights the role in ontogeny of physiological and socioemotional development.

Conclusions:

• Mother-infant co-sleeping is evolutionarily significant for infant development.
• Viewing the dyad as a CAS provides a framework for understanding co-regulation.
• This perspective illuminates the development of physiological and socioemotional systems in infants.