Dr. McKenna is the author of Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Cosleeping . 

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in Anthropology and his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, also in Anthropology, specializing in the evolution of human parenting systems and human development. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley for two years before accepting a tenure track position at Pomona College in Claremont, California where he taught for 20 years, and won several teaching awards. In 1997, he was recruited by the University of Notre Dame, where he is a Professor and the director of the University of Notre Dame Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory.

Dr. McKenna is best known for his pioneering studies of the differences between the physiology and behavior of solitary and co-sleeping mothers an infants-and the connection these data might have in addressing SIDS risks. He has published three books, the most recent one entitled Evolutionary Medicine with Oxford University Press. In addition, he has published well over 50 peer-reviewed papers on SIDS and co-sleeping.