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The Co-sleeping Atlasby FamBed
The AtlasAbout the atlas
About the atlasMethodology and sources

About the Co-sleeping Atlas

The Co-sleeping Atlas is published by FamBed, a Danish company that makes family beds. We have brought together what research, public authorities, Google searches and comments say about sleeping together as a family, with a clickable source for every figure.

389sources linked on this page, in addition to the studies in the research overview
3types of figures we keep separate: research and public authority data, Google searches, and comments and statements by celebrities
Nov. 2026when the figures were last updated
What we know

Research, official guidance and measurements. Each figure includes the children's ages, what was measured and when, as figures measured in different ways cannot be compared directly.

What people search for

FamBed's count of Google searches and Google's own suggested searches. A search does not represent a co-sleeping family; it shows interest and questions.

What people say

FamBed's review of comments, posts on open parenting forums and celebrities' own statements. Those posting are not representative of all parents.

The methodology at a glance

Search volumes: Data from Google's search volume tool (Keyword Planner), covering 26 European countries and the USA over 48 months. The headline figures use the most recent 12 months and are converted into searches per 1,000 children born (World Bank 2024).

Changes over time: Word frequency in Google's book search tool (Ngram, 1970-2022), the number of research articles in PubMed (1970-2025), Google Trends (2004-2025) and Wikipedia page views (2016-2025), all retrieved on 30 October 2026.

Google suggestions: 3,709 searches we carried out on Google and the suggestions Google returned, across 12 languages in 18 countries and language regions.

The comments: 10,790 comments, read and categorised by two independent AI models using set rules, with a third acting as judge (agreement 84.7%).

Parenting forums: Open threads from parenting forums in 11 countries, read and quoted verbatim with names omitted. They show what parents write, not what everyone thinks.

Research, public authorities and history: Every source was opened and rechecked in October and November 2026. All quotes are verbatim.

Public figures: Only their own public statements, checked against the original source.

Publisher: FamBed sells family beds. That is precisely why every figure includes its limitations and why we present both sides of the research.

Corrections: If you spot an error, we will correct it and note the correction on this page.

For media, bloggers and everyone else

Use the figures

You may use FamBed's graphics, figures and data from the Co-sleeping Atlas free of charge, including for commercial purposes, provided you credit "FamBed's Co-sleeping Atlas" as the source and link to this page. (CC BY 4.0)

CC BY 4.0 is a well-known open licence used by media and researchers. It means exactly what it says: you may use the material as long as you credit the source and link to it.

What you can do

  • Use the graphics, figures and data in articles, blog posts, assignments, presentations and on social media.
  • Use them for free, even if your website or business makes money.
  • Display a graphic on your website, use it as an image or quote a figure.
  • Translate or modify a graphic, provided you state that you have changed it.

What you must do in return

  • Credit »FamBed's Co-sleeping Atlas« as the source.
  • Link to the page in the atlas where the figure appears. The codes provided here already include the link, so you do not need to find it yourself.

What the licence does not cover

The licence only covers FamBed's own graphics, analyses and data. Studies, texts published by public authorities, quotes from public figures and social media comments belong to their respective authors. You may, however, use FamBed's graphics based on them. If you want to reproduce the study, text or quotation itself, the original publisher's own rules apply. The source is listed beneath each graphic.

How to use the material

  1. Find the graphic or figure. Beneath each graphic, you will find the »Use the graphic« button, and beneath each headline figure, you will find »Use the figure«.
  2. Choose how you want to use it. Billede is the easiest option: you download the graphic as a standard image with the source shown at the bottom. Embed displays the graphic directly on your website using code, so it is updated whenever we update the figures. Cite provides a ready-to-use sentence with a link and source citation for assignments.
  3. Select Copy, then paste it onto your page. The link to the atlas is included in what you copy.

Example: embedding

The embed code for the graphic “Searches peak in January”. It displays the graphic with the source included and a standard link to the atlas directly below.

In WordPress, click +, search for “HTML”, select “Custom HTML” and paste in the code. If the graphic does not appear, use Image instead.

Example: citation

A ready-to-use sentence with a link. The link is included when you paste it.

According to FamBed's Co-sleeping Atlas, January is the month when Europeans Google co-sleeping and family beds the most, with 32% more searches than in an average month.

Codes for all graphics and figures

Click the button next to a graphic or figure to get the codes.

Homepage

  • Europe on one map

Google search interest

  • 1,136 Annual Google searches in Germany per 1,000 children born
  • 5.8 x Adjusted for the number of children born, Germans search 5.8 times as often as the other 25 countries combined: 1,136 versus 196 searches per 1,000 children born
  • +32 % more searches in January than in an average month across Europe
  • The ranking depends on which terms are counted
  • Searches peak in January
  • Germany accounts for a large share of searches
  • Finland searches for sleep training, Sweden for co-sleeping
  • Searches for parenting approaches are falling fastest
  • Sleep training and co-sleeping track together

Interest over time

  • 4 x times as much interest in co-sleeping on Google worldwide in 2025 as in 2010
  • 13 x times as much interest in “Familienbett” (family bed) on Google in Germany in 2025 as in 2012
  • 63 research articles a year now focus on sleeping together
  • Four sources on one timeline
  • Searches in your country

Space and money

  • 1,136 versus 11 Google searches per year for co-sleeping and family beds per 1,000 children born in Germany (the most) and Romania (the fewest)
  • 61.5% of children in Romania live in overcrowded homes, meaning their home has too few rooms for the family
  • 26 countries are included in the comparison
  • Wealth, living space and Google searches

Who sleeps where

  • 83 % of children aged 0-3 in Vietnam slept in their parents' bed
  • 5 % of children aged 0-3 in the UK slept in their parents' bed
  • 57 vs 4 % Another measure from the same study found that 57% of young children in the Western countries fell asleep alone in their own bed at bedtime, compared with 4% in the Asian countries
  • Where do children aged 0-3 sleep?
  • Figures from the rest of Europe
  • Figures from Asia and the Middle East
  • Fact-check: “93% of 3-10-year-olds sleep with their parents”

For how long?

  • 12 out of 12 languages in which a child's age is the biggest topic in Google's co-sleeping suggestions
  • 42 % of suggestions in Dutch relate to a child's age, the highest share of all 12 languages
  • 16 out of 18 of the countries and language regions we studied have suggestions about children aged 10 or over
  • What parents type into Google
  • How old are the children who sleep in their parents' bed?
  • When is a child too old for their parents' bed?

The history

  • 12 of 105 traditional societies worldwide where children slept alone
  • under 200 years since it was normal for families to share a bed in Germany, the UK and the US, according to experts
  • 25.3% of children in the EU now live in homes with too few rooms for their families under the EU's definition (2025)
  • Scenes from the history of beds
  • From a shared bed to a room of their own
  • Who did children sleep with?
  • Space in the home

The research

  • 16.599 British children in the largest longitudinal study: sleeping in their parents’ bed at 9 months old was not associated with anxiety, sadness or restlessness between the ages of 3 and 11
  • 659 scientific papers reviewed in a major 2017 review: no convincing evidence that sleeping with parents harms or benefits children
  • OR 2,83 in a British study of 7.077 children (2026): children who first began sleeping in their parents’ bed between the ages of 1½ and 3½ had nearly three times the odds of having an anxiety disorder at age 8
  • All studies at a glance
  • Selected studies from both sides

The authorities

  • 18 countries where we reviewed the official guidance: 16 in Europe, plus the USA and Japan
  • 0 of the official guidance warns against co-sleeping with children over 1 year old
  • 3–12 mos. is how long the guidance on where babies should sleep applies, from the first 3 months in Sweden to the entire first year in Germany
  • Three types of guidance in Europe
  • How long does the advice apply for?

Who says what?

  • 44 of the 106 organisations advise against sharing a bed with a baby. 27 say that the baby's own bed is safest, but offer advice to those who do share
  • 28 organisations describe sharing a bed with a baby as the parents' choice and offer advice on making it safer
  • 21 out of 31 breastfeeding and parent organisations describe it as the parents' choice
  • Who supports sharing a bed with a baby, and who opposes it?
  • What do organisations in your country say?
  • What do they say about older children?
  • The largest online profiles

What people say

  • 79.6% of those expressing a view are in favour of sleeping together. 19.2% are against it, while the rest are both for and against
  • 41 vs 15% of the critical comments mention the adults' lives, such as sex and sleep
  • 279 vs 275 of 6,289 comments are about pets in bed and sex lives
  • For or against co-sleeping
  • When criticism is directed at someone, it is usually the adults
  • Pets are mentioned just as often as sex and intimacy
  • Most-liked comments
  • What are people talking about?
  • How many are against it in each language?

How families sleep

  • 64% of 3.146 parents who sleep with their children had not planned to do so before the birth
  • 27% of Danish parents sleep in the same room or bed as at least one child (2019)
  • 2.4-2.8 m is how wide most of the family beds described by parents in the forums we read are
  • How wide are family beds?
  • A wider bed doesn't mean more room: the child takes the middle
  • In Japan: same room, separate futons
  • School-age children in the family bed
  • Judged either way
  • Unplanned, but preferred
  • Norms and practices in Denmark
  • Children come into their parents' bed at night

Celebrities

  • 196 celebrities across 32 countries have talked about co-sleeping with their children
  • 118 vs 8 Of the 167 statements from interviews and the media, 118 support co-sleeping and 8 oppose it. 34 are both for and against it, and 7 are neutral
  • 54 of the 167 statements concern children aged 6 or over
  • What celebrities say
  • More celebrities who have spoken about co-sleeping
  • How big are celebrities' beds?

Adults, couples and pets

  • 15 % of UK couples living together slept separately in 2020
  • 8 vs 17 % of UK couples with two children slept separately in 2020, compared with 17% of couples with no children living at home
  • 44 % of Danish dog owners let their dog sleep in their bed (Dyson 2022)
  • Couples sleeping separately in the UK
  • Other surveys
  • Dogs and cats share the bed in many Danish homes
  • What research tells us about adults
  • Dogs and cats in bed: surveys from 9 countries

Press

Are you a journalist or do you have questions about the figures or methodology? Email hello@fambed.com.

For AI assistants

AI assistants and others may use the figures as long as FamBed's Co-sleeping Atlas is credited and linked. Link to the atlas page where the figure appears, for example https://fambed.co.uk/co-sleeping-atlas/google-search-interest. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Credit: “FamBed's Co-sleeping Atlas”.

All sources used on this page

Google search interest

Interest over time

Space and money

Who sleeps where

For how long?

The history

The research

The authorities

Who says what?

How families sleep

Celebrities

Adults, couples and pets

Each of the 121 studies in the research overview is linked within the overview itself.

In WordPress, click +, search for “HTML”, select “Custom HTML” and paste in the code. If the graphic does not appear, use Image instead.

You may use FamBed's graphics, figures and data from the Co-sleeping Atlas free of charge, including for commercial purposes, provided you credit "FamBed's Co-sleeping Atlas" as the source and link to this page. (CC BY 4.0)

How you can use the figures