The definitive new scientific and data-driven guide on baby sleep for new parents from the director of the Sleep and Infant Age Centre at Durham University, Professor Helen L. Ball.

‘As compassionate as it is clinically rigorous . . . a bibliographically grounded challenge to rethink everything we think we know about baby sleep.’

— Gudi Singh, British Medical Journal

‘Clear and engaging, it provides truly useful suggestions that will help manage parents' expectations and anxieties. How Babies Sleep is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the first 365 days of human life.’

— Russell Foster, neuroscientist and Sunday Times bestseller author of Life Time

--- Baby sleep is as extraordinarily simple as it is extremely complex. It is simple because it is based on a few basic biological principles that affect all babies worldwide. It is complex because we have made baby sleep seem that way.

Over the past century and a half, we have tried to manage baby sleep to fit the rapidly changing nature of adult lives. The disharmony we have created with babies’ biology is renamed ‘baby sleep problems’, and infants are usually ‘treated’ through behavioral and clinical interventions. But it is not baby sleep that needs fixing – only our understanding of it.

In How Babies Sleep, pioneering and award-winning infant sleep researcher Professor Helen Ball brings together cutting-edge science, anthropological knowledge, and practical advice to equip parents with everything they need to confidently – and reasonably – navigate the first 365 nights with their new baby. She will teach you how to align your needs with those of your baby, and empower you to reject approaches that make you feel uncomfortable and to experiment with strategies that work for you and your family.

---- ‘Finally — the book about baby sleep that every new parent truly needs.’

— Amanda Ruggeri, award-winning science and parenting journalist

‘An accessible, intelligent reference on issues surrounding baby sleep.’

— Sue Gerhardt, psychotherapist and author of Why Love Matters

‘The most important voice we have for bringing clarity.’

— Greer Kirshenbaum, neuroscientist, doula, and author of The Nurture Revolution

‘Essential reading . . . Exciting, reassuring, and empowering, it will change everything.’

— Tiffany Bèlanger, author of Cosleepy