Normal infant sleep: ask an anthropologist @JesusCollegeCambridge

Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

How can an anthropological view explain our babies' sleep behaviour?

Why are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) societies unusual when it comes to infant sleep? How can we alter expectations and address cultural pressure around the sometimes contentious subject of babies' sleep?

In this Q&A session for the Intellectual Forum and ThinkLab's #SleepWeek, Professor Helen Ball, Director of Durham University's Parent-Infant Sleep Lab, answers questions about the work she presents in this recorded lecture: youtube.com/watch?v=g5fOogsUpIk

MORE SLEEP WEEK EVENTS: jesus.cam.ac.uk/articles/intellectual-forum-run-week-events-sleep

RESEARCH-BASED ADVICE ON BABY SLEEP: basisonline.org.uk

UPCOMING CONFERENCE: Professor Ball will be hosting a virtual conference with the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre on 21 April.
More information and registration: dur.ac.uk/conference.booking/details/?id=1627

BBC INTERVIEW: Professor Ball was recently interviewed by the BBC - this article summarises some of the ideas discussed in the Q&A.

More about the speaker:

Helen Ball is Professor of Anthropology and Director of Durham University's Parent-Infant Sleep Lab. She pioneers the study of infant sleep and the parent-infant sleep relationship from a biosocial perspective. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1992.

Her research examines sleep ecology, particularly of infants, young children and their parents. This encompasses attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioural and physiological monitoring of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural sleep preferences and biological sleep needs. She has conducted research in hospitals and the community, and contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on infant care. She pioneers the translation of academic research on infant sleep into evidence for use by parents and healthcare staff via BASIS - the Baby Sleep Information Source website. In 2013 Professor Ball received an award for Outstanding Impact in Society from the Economic and Social Research Council for her work on parent-infant sleep.

Normal infant sleep: ask an anthropologist

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$Building sustainable communities with Professor Yasmeen Lari Please note that we had some technical difficulties, so some of the event is missing in this recording. What happens if you involve communities in post-disaster development? Join Professor Yasmeen Lari, ‘architect for the poorest of the poor’, at the Intellectual Forum to hear about her work in Pakistan following the 2022 flooding and her vision for the future of sustainable architecture. The impact of climate change was at its most severe in the countrywide flooding disaster that engulfed Pakistan in the summer of 2022. One third of the country, the size of United Kingdom, was submerged in water, rendering 33 million people homeless in its wake. During earlier post-disaster development, the promotion of high carbon urbanized models (using concrete blocks, steel girders, and burnt bricks), resulted in excessive GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions, whilst also inhibiting community participation. The promotion of the international colonial charity model, which consists largely of handouts, overlooked traditional low-carbon vernacular construction and participatory approaches. Since the floods occurred, adoption of Barefoot Social Architecture (BASA) principles, which seek to foster community participation, has demonstrated how flood-affected households can be placed on the path of rapid recovery, at low cost. Yasmeen Lari will present her holistic architectural approach, which has led to the rehabilitation of 1,000 households through provision of rights-based development: the basic needs of shelter, sanitation, water, alternative energy, and clean cooking, along with disaster mitigation measures and environmental improvement through self-building techniques. Her work in Pakistan following the floods demonstrates the importance of women-led and women-centred rehabilitation to foster empowerment and self-reliance for building sustainable communities – at a fraction of the cost incurred by the prevalent international models. Building upon the successful pilot implemented in one of the worst flood-hit areas, Yasmeen will discuss how the target of 1 million households could be achieved through investment of only £160 per household. About the speaker Yasmeen Lari is Marshall Professor of Sustainable Design at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, 2022-2023. She trained as an architect at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, and was elected to RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) in 1969. She has served as president of IAP (Institute of Architects Pakistan), deputy chair of ARCASIA (Architectural Regional Council of Asia), and founding chair of architects’ regulatory body PCATP (Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners, chair of TI-P (Transparency International Pakistan) and founder chair of INTBAU Pakistan (International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism). Yasmeen is the cofounder and CEO of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, an organization working to conserve the nation’s historic art and architecture while providing large-scale humanitarian aid to local communities. Under her leadership, the Heritage Foundation has helped build over 40,000 carbon-neutral structures across Pakistan. She has received several national and international awards including the Fukuoka Prize (2016) and Jane Drew Prize (2020). As a result of her strategies for providing social and ecological justice to marginalized sections, she is often referred to as ‘architect for the poorest of the poor’. She has authored and co-authored several publications on Pakistan’s architectural history and on low-tech low-impact zero carbon methodologies for construction.$

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