> No. Everybody gets less sleep and for small babies there's a serious risk of death.

I've heard this but I don't buy it. People have been sleeping this way for millions of years. Normally I believe parents are plenty in tune with their baby's presence not to roll over on them. If you're a heavy drinker then yeah you should probably go sleep on the couch. But as a parent you often have to make choices with conflicting information. If you want the best of both worlds get a co-sleeper.

"People have been sleeping this way for millions of years".

First off mattresses and the way we sleep now are only a few hundred years old. Second we don't have detailed statistics for infant deaths until very recently so we don't know how many babies were dying a long time ago and for what causes.

For evidence of the risk please see my reply below http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839044

Rolling over your child is a myth. Only happens if you're drugged or wasted.

Likewise, people have been sleeping with their babies for millennia. The only big difference with modern day life is our beds are filled with more pillows, soft bedding, etc.

We put our daughter's crib in our room, which I think helped tremendously in getting her to sleep through the night.

When she started climbing out of her crib we put a foam mattress on the floor and let her sleep on that (which we moved to her bedroom). This also helped with comforting her at night when she woke up, as we would lie down next to her. Gradually she stopped waking up at night, and if she did, she would go back to sleep by herself.

IMO, getting your baby to sleep through the night and going to bed without too much fuss pays off. I'm no child psychologist, but I think by assuring them that you're there whenever they need you, they become more secure when you're not around. Being able to have a full night's rest is imperative to functioning well the next day.

Once you have children, you tend to start strategizing your sleep schedule.

That's pretty much what we did and it worked out very well. For the first 6 months we had the baby in his crib in our room and we'd comfort him when needed. Apparently before 6 months they don't know they can use crying as a power so you cannot 'spoil' them. After then we moved him to his room and we would tend to him less.

No, you'll sleep fine and there's no more risk of SIDS in co-sleeping babies than those that sleep in cribs and some serious research to suggest that co-sleepers are actually safer.

For evidence of the risk please see my reply below http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839044 . I believe SIDS is not yet very well understood, but there's also risk of asphyxiation.

Also if you sleep fine, good for you. I wouldn't and couldn't sleep well knowing there's a risk (although small) of hurting a baby.

This is not true. First everybody gets more sleep not less. After the first month or two if you are nursing you can just hook up and go back to sleep.

The risk of SIDS is lower with co-sleeping, and the risk of suffocation or those other horror stories is minuscule. And on top of that they typically only happen with parents who are morbidly obese or on medication (not just illegal drugs, but things like cold medication).

So the prudent thing is not to cosleep it if you took anything, but otherwise it's better.