If you have not already done so, please read Blog Posts 1 through 5 that describe how sleep is important and beneficial. I will post specific information for parents and children based on my book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Please do not be put off by my book’s length. This is a reference book. Read only the topic of interest to you.
An old paper on infant teething prospectively measured temperature, pain, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and white blood cell counts. Results showed that the eruption of a tooth was not associated with fever nor biomarkers of inflammation nor disturbed sleep. Here’s the citation: Tasanen, A. (1968). General and local effects of the eruption of deciduous teeth. Annales Paediatriae Fenniae, 14 (Suppl. 29).
A few other prospective studies based on parents’ reports came to the same conclusion. A few retrospective studies based on parents’ reports came to the opposite conclusion, but these are not reliable studies because of recall bias.
Now, in 2025, 57 years later, we have more objective research; here’s the citation and abstract (emphasis added)
Kahn M, Lucchini M, Oster E, Thakur S, Waugh M, Barnett N. Does Teething Disrupt Infant Sleep? A Longitudinal Auto-Videosomnography Study. J Pediatr. . 2025279doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2025.114461
OBJECTIVE: To examine prospectively the relationship between teething and infant sleep using objective sleep measurements.
STUDY DESIGN: Over a 4-week period, 849 infants aged 3-18 months (mean = 8.4 +/- 1.8) from the US and Canada were monitored using auto-videosomnography, based on computer-vision technology to decode video footage from crib camera monitors. Parents also provided reports of tooth eruption timing, symptoms, and management strategies. Objective sleep metrics, including total sleep time, night-time awakenings, and parental crib visits, were compared between teething and nonteething nights using generalized estimating equations and changepoint analysis.
RESULTS: Both analytic approaches showed no significant differences in sleep metrics between teething and nonteething nights. Although over one-half of the parents reported sleep disturbances during teething, these subjective reports were not corroborated by the objective data.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings challenge the widely held belief that teething disrupts sleep and highlight the need for pediatric health care professionals to consider alternative explanations for infant sleep problems. Educating parents with evidence-based information may prevent potentially harmful management strategies for teething (eg, excessive use of analgesics and local anesthetics) and improve sleep problem management. Future research should explore these relationships using multiple objective measures and more diverse populations.
The myth that teething disrupts infant sleep has persisted. Perhaps the business of selling teething products to parents has contributed to this enduring nonsense. It is a big business; the global baby teeth care products market was valued at $1.33 billion in 2022. Maybe the infant teeth care industry is based on a lie.
