While baby stuff takes up a laughable amount of space - babies themselves actually occupy very little room. It's why parents - particularly ones who have to wake up for feedings throughout the night - may default to keeping their kid at arm's reach while they sleep. Besides, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has long recommended room-sharing for infants up to 12 months old, since this proximity appears to be linked to lower rates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

However, new research recently published in the medical journal Pediatrics throws shade - and fresh data - at those guidelines: Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine looked at questionnaires completed by 279 mothers and their newborns on sleep duration, location, night waking, night feedings, bedtime routines, and sleep behaviors at 4- and 9-month intervals, then followed up on sleep duration, location, and sleeping patterns at the 12- and 30-month marks. What they found: Babies older than 4 months who slept in their own rooms clocked an average of 45 more minutes of continuous sleep throughout the night and slept more on average per night than babies who slept in their parents' rooms. Solo sleeping habits had lasting effects: At the 30-month mark, 4-month-olds who'd slept in their own rooms continued to clock more sleep than infants who'd shared a room for more than four months.

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