One particularly strange feature of middle-class family life is the way we train our children to sleep. For all the tenacity with which we cling to the ideal of solitary childhood sleep, it’s a historical anomaly. Even in wealthy families that could afford to spread out, children generally slept in the same room with nurses or siblings. Indeed, solitary childhood sleep seems cruel in those parts of the world where co-sleeping is still practiced, including developed countries such as Japan. The best-known method for separating children from parents involves training rather than webbing.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 24, 2017 11:00 UTC