Can you remember the first night you slept in a room of your own? Or did that moment never really come until you were much older?

For many Indians, childhood nights weren't spent alone. They meant squeezing into the family bed, listening to bedtime stories, drifting off to the sound of a grandmother's lullaby, or instinctively reaching for a parent's hand in the middle of the night.

While many Western cultures have long celebrated independent sleeping as a milestone of growing up, India has quietly held on to a different philosophy — one where sleeping together is simply another way of expressing love and care. Now, interestingly, this age-old parenting practice is finding renewed global attention as researchers, anthropologists and parents revisit what co-sleeping really means.

And they're discovering something surprising: co-sleeping isn't unusual at all. In fact, studies suggest nearly two-thirds of the world's population practises some form of co-sleeping, making solitary sleep a cultural norm in only certain parts of the world rather than a universal parenting practice.

More than sharing a bed

Co-sleeping broadly refers to parents and children sleeping in close proximity. It can mean bed-sharing, where a baby sleeps on the same sleep surface as the parents, or room-sharing, where the baby sleeps in a separate crib or bassinet in the parents' room.

Across much of India, co-sleeping has never really been a parenting "trend". It has simply been the default. From practical reasons like shared living spaces to easier nighttime breastfeeding and a culture that places immense value on family closeness, generations have grown up believing babies belong close to their caregivers — even while they sleep.

In fact, studies estimate that between 60% and 90% of families across many Asian countries, including India, Japan and China, practise co-sleeping in some........

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