Some parents might wonder whether baby can sleep in their own room from birth. The answer is that experts don’t recommend this. However, recent research shows that babies who slept in their own rooms before four months of age (referred to as ‘early independent sleepers’) slept longer than babies who slept in their parents' room. What’s even more interesting is that the effects of this early change were long-lasting. By 9 months of age, these early independent sleepers were better sleepers than other babies who were still sleeping in their parents' bedrooms. But, they were also better sleepers than babies who had transitioned out of their parents’ bedrooms between 4 and 9 months. It’s not completely clear why this is the case but one hypothesis is that babies who sleep in separate rooms from their parents learn better self-soothing skills.