Co-sleeping: why bed-sharing is still taboo when so many cultures see it as normal, and even healthy?

Lifestyle

Life & relationships

Sunday Life

Opinion

Melissa Singer Associate Editor, Sunday Life September 21, 2025 — 5.00am This story is part of the September 21 edition of Sunday Life. See all 13 stories .

There’s a saying among parents that you don’t get a true proper night’s sleep until your last child moves out of home. Always worrying, always wondering.

My daughter has always been a patchy sleeper. Given my own sleep habits – early riser, over-thinker – it was almost inevitable. My mother calls it the universe’s revenge for what I put her through.

I gave birth to my daughter in the bleakest of winters, during the longest COVID-19 lockdown in the world. For more than 1200 days, sleep – hers, mine, getting it, protecting it, prolonging it – has dogged my thoughts a