Apnea and periodic breathing in bed-sharing and solitary sleeping infants

Mother-infant bed sharing, compared with the solitary sleeping condition, has recently been associated with several physiological and behavioral effects. Because the physiological effects of bed sharing may also include respiratory changes, we compared the incidence of central and obstructive apneas and periodic breathing in bed-sharing and solitary sleeping infants. Twenty routinely bed-sharing mother-infant pairs and fifteen routinely solitary sleeping pairs slept for 3 nights in a sleep laboratory. After an initial adaptation night, each pair spent 1 night bed sharing and 1 night in solitary sleep in random order. Apnea and periodic breathing were scored from polysomnographic recordings. The frequency of central apnea was significantly increased on the bed-sharing night, compared with the solitary night, regardless of routine sleeping arrangement. There were significantly fewer obstructive apneas on the bed-sharing night than on the solitary night, but only in routinely solitary sleeping infants. In both groups, there was a significantly higher frequency of periodic breathing events on the bed-sharing night than on the solitary night. These findings demonstrate that the bed-sharing environment can have a significant impact on respiratory control in the infant. Evidence is also presented to suggest that routine bed sharing may result in subtle neurophysiological and/or developmental differences in infants.