Phenomenological Reflections on Sleep Resistance in Infants and the Role of Rhythm for Intercorporeality

Abstract

In this essay, we explore responses to sleep resistance in infants from a phenomenological perspective. After introducing sleep resistance as a plausible reaction to the threat of world-withdrawal, we introduce the concepts of intercorporeality and rhythm. If we understand our existence as being from body to body and rhythm as a way of coordinating bodies, we can think beyond the individual. Philosophers such as Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, and Derrida help understand on an existential level why sleep resistance can be alleviated through modes of rhythm as displayed in clinging, carrying, and dancing. As a result, parents and infants could come to experience existence as more interconnected, such that going beyond the individual is not to be feared but welcomed. If we learn to habituate such forms of intercorporeality, we will not only sleep better, but come to a more relational understanding of existence.

Keywords: rhythm, intercorporeality, sleep resistance, infant, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas