Abstract
Background
Bed sharing is common practice across the global population. However, the vast majority
of research on bed sharing has focused solely on mother-infant bed sharing.
Methods
Here, we provide a holistic review of research on bed sharing. Articles investigating
the relationship between bed sharing and sleep were identified in 4 dyad categories:
(1) parent and child, (2) couples, (3) siblings, and (4) pet owners and pets. Of interest
was whether sleep-promoting factors such as psychological comfort were generalizable
across bed-sharing dyads; alternatively, sleep-demoting factors such as movement or
heat may be commonalities.
Results
We found that, across dyad types, in general, subjective reports of sleep quality
were better when bed sharing despite generally worse objective measures of sleep.
Conclusions
Understanding bed sharing is important to treating sleep disturbances, given the prevalence
of shared beds. This scoping review points to critical gaps in our understanding of
bed sharing that motivate future research.
Keywords
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Published online: January 10, 2021
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