It’s a well known fact that getting baby to sleep through the night is a common challenge for parents. I came across a recent study, which indicates that the more time you spend holding or cuddling up with your little one the more helpful it may be. Researchers looked at several groups of parents and how much time they spent holding their child and whether or not they slept with baby. The fact that parents did or did not sleep with their baby was not very instrumental and seemed not to affect baby’s sleep, however the baby did benefit from lots of physical contact. “I would recommend that parents give their infants a lot of physical contact during the day, not only when the infant is crying, but also when the infant is content and awake,” says Marissa Alvarez, one of the study’s authors. “At the same time, I would remind them that even babies who are being held and well cared for have periods when they cry and cannot be consoled.”