2.2 Natural light

Although many of Truby King’s views have fallen out of favour, his ideas around exposing young children to natural light find evidence in twenty-first-century research. For example, Harrison carried out a study in 2004, discovering that exposure to natural light can impact positively on babies’ sleep patterns, their vision and the development of their young bones.

This study was carried out with 56 babies and their parents in the UK. She recruited the parents in a baby show exhibition and asked them to keep a diary recording their babies’ sleep and to permit the babies, who were only between six and twelve weeks old, to wear an activity and light monitor on their ankle. She found that ‘Babies who slept well at night were exposed to significantly more light in the early afternoon period’ (Harrison, 2004, p. 345).