How babies sleep is both exceedingly simple and excruciatingly complex. It is simple because it is based on a few straightforward biological principles that affect all babies the world over. It is complex because we have made it so.
Over the past century and a half, we have tried to manipulate baby sleep to fit with the rapidly changing nature of adult lives. The mismatch we have created with our babies’ biology is framed as ‘baby sleep problems’, and infants are often ‘treated’ using behavioural and clinical interventions. But it is not baby sleep that needs fixing – only our understanding of it.