Children's sleep in seven Western communities: The cultural regulation of universal developmental processes.

Abstract

Universal developmental processes offer a window on the role of culture. The present study analyzes differences in the amount and timing of sleep behavior for 419 children from 6 months to 7-8 years of age, as well as aspects of the developmental niches that promote or discourage specific sleep patterns. Samples were recruited in seven different cultural groups of European origin, in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Diary data, recorded over seven consecutive days by parents, reveal significant and powerful sample differences in total sleep per 24 hr: For example, sample means at age 6 months ranged from 12.70 hr (Spain) to 15.10 hr (the Netherlands); at 7-8 years they ranged from 10.0 hr (Italy) to 11.12 hr (the Netherlands). Other differences include within-sample variation in total sleep, time of nocturnal sleep onset, the incidence of cosleeping, and marginally, the consolidation of sleep into nighttime hours. Semistructured interviews topically coded to understand parents' culturally shared ideas and practices about the regulation of sleep. Major sample differences were found in four key areas: rest and regularity, bedtime routines, cosleeping, and family adaptation. Cultural variations in these parents' ethnotheories generally correspond to the observed sample difference in children's sleep. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).