Germans show the greatest interest in co-sleeping
We counted how many times people in 26 European countries searched Google for co-sleeping and family bed terms in their own languages between October 2025 and September 2026. To compare countries large and small, we converted the figures into searches per 1,000 children born. We also counted searches for sleep training and attachment parenting to see what else parents search for.
What this means
- Search interest in co-sleeping is particularly high in German-speaking countries, with Germany, Austria and Switzerland topping the ranking.
- Germany takes the top spot thanks to the German word for family bed, "Familienbett". When only the term co-sleeping is counted, Ireland ranks first and Germany ranks 19.
- Germans also search most for attachment parenting, a parenting style based on keeping children close and responding quickly when they cry: 7 times as often as the rest of Europe.
- Finland is the land of sleep training: 95% of Finnish searches for co-sleeping and sleep training are for sleep training. In Sweden, the figure is 26%.
- Sleep training and co-sleeping are not opposites: countries that search frequently for one often search frequently for the other too. What sets the countries apart is whether parents search more for co-sleeping or sleep training.
- Searches reflect interest and curiosity, not how many families actually sleep together. FamBed's own adverts may also prompt more people to search for family beds.
In United Kingdom, people search Google for co-sleeping and family bed 317 times a year for every 1,000 children born. That puts the country at number 9 out of 26 European countries. The most searched term is “how to co sleep safely”. Searches peak in January. Of all searches for co-sleeping and sleep training combined, 73% are about sleep training.
The ranking depends on which terms are counted
Annual searches per 1,000 children born. Choose which terms to include.
When co-sleeping and family bed searches are combined, Germany, Austria and Switzerland rank highest. Their lead comes from the German word “Familienbett” (family bed).
Source: Google's search volume tool, Keyword Planner (Oct 2025-Sep 2026); World Bank, 2024 births; Calculation: FamBed.
Searches peak in January
Monthly search volume, averaged over four years. 100 represents an average month, while anything above 100 means more searches than usual. The bars show Europe as a whole, and the line shows your selected country.
Source: Google search volume tool, 48 months (Oct. 2022-Sep. 2026).
Germany accounts for a large share of searches
Germany accounts for a far greater share of searches than of births across the 26 countries.
Across Germany, »Familienbett« is Googled around 900 times a day. When only the term co-sleeping is counted, Ireland ranks first, while Germany ranks 19 out of 26.
Source: FamBed's count of Google searches; World Bank.
Finland searches for sleep training, Sweden for co-sleeping
Sleep training means teaching a child to fall asleep on their own, for example by waiting a little longer before offering comfort. Each bar combines all searches for co-sleeping and sleep training in that country. The blue segment shows the share for co-sleeping, while the sand-coloured segment shows the share for sleep training. Family bed searches are not included here.
At the top is Finland: 95% of searches are about sleep training. At the bottom is Sweden: 26%.In United Kingdom, 27 out of every 100 searches for co-sleeping or sleep training are about co-sleeping, and 73 are about sleep training.
Source: Google Keyword Planner search volume data (Oct. 2025-Sep. 2026); Calculation: FamBed.
Searches for parenting approaches are falling fastest
How search volumes across the 26 countries rose or fell over three years, comparing October 2022 to September 2023 with October 2025 to September 2026.
For comparison, there were 7% fewer births across the 26 countries in 2024 than in 2022. Adjusted for the number of children born, interest in family beds is therefore stable, while sleep training and parenting philosophies are losing ground.
Source: Google's search volume tool, 48 months (Oct. 2022 to Sep. 2026); World Bank, births in 2022 and 2024.
Sleep training and co-sleeping track together
The five countries with the highest Google search volumes for each topic, per 1,000 children born. Only the term co-sleeping is counted here, not family bed, so the figures are lower than in the ranking above. Countries appearing on both lists are highlighted.
Co-sleeping
- Ireland522
- Sweden410
- Norway408
- United Kingdom299
- Denmark141
Sleep training
- Finland1,503
- Ireland1,341
- United Kingdom804
- Norway251
- Sweden144
Four of the five countries with the most co-sleeping searches also rank among the top five for sleep training. This shows that countries where parents often Google children's sleep tend to search for both approaches.
Source: Google's search volume tool (Oct 2025-Sep 2026); calculation: FamBed.
How we calculated it
The terms: We combine two types of search terms in each country's language: the term for co-sleeping (such as samsovning, co-sleeping and Co-Sleeping) and the term for family bed (such as familieseng, Familienbett and familiebed). Terms with two meanings are only included when "Terms with two meanings" is selected. These include the French term "cododo" and "co sleeper", which are also names for a small cot placed beside the parents' bed. Searches for these types of cots and for moving a child into their own bed are excluded.
Calculation: The number of searches over the past 12 months (Oct 2025-Sep 2026), taken from Google Keyword Planner, divided by the number of children born in the country in 2024 (World Bank), then multiplied by 1,000. "The rest of Europe" combines the other 25 countries. The US is included for comparison but not in the ranking.
Attachment parenting and sleep training: "Attachment parenting" covers terms for attachment-oriented parenting, such as attachment parenting, the German "bedürfnisorientierte Erziehung" and the Swedish "nära föräldraskap". "Sleep training" covers the term in each language and named methods, such as the Ferber method and the Finnish "unikoulu" (sleep school). Terms that also refer to something else are excluded, such as the Swedish "sömnskola", which is also used in relation to adult insomnia. Including these terms increases Sweden's share of sleep training searches from 26% to 44%.
The balance: Sleep training's share is calculated by dividing sleep training searches by the combined number of co-sleeping and sleep training searches. Family bed searches are not included in this balance, so Finland, which ranks 4 for family bed searches, can have a high volume of family bed searches while most searches are still for sleep training. The relationship between co-sleeping and sleep training is a rank correlation (rho 0.57, 26 countries): a measure from -1 to 1 of whether the countries appear in the same order on both lists.
The three-year trend is based on a fixed list of terms and cannot capture new terms that have since emerged. "Gentle parenting", for example, includes gentle parenting and positive parenting.
Caveats: Google rounds its search volumes, so differences of less than around 10% are not meaningful. Languages with many different terms for co-sleeping may change the ranking below the top three. FamBed's own advertising may also prompt more people to search for family beds. The count covers 26 countries, including Portugal. Without Portugal, the calculation produces 5.7 instead of 5.8.