Safety, Not a Solution: What the Cubby Bed Can—and Can’t—Do for Sleep
When sleep concerns intersect with safety risks, it’s necessary to seek the fastest possible solution. For many families, that solution may come in the form of a “safety bed” like the Cubby Bed. These enclosed beds are designed with features like soft walls, zippered enclosures, and sturdy frames—making them highly effective at preventing elopement, property destruction, and certain forms of self-injurious behavior. For children with significant safety needs, they can provide much-needed peace of mind for exhausted caregivers.
But it’s essential we don’t confuse safety with sleep support.
What the Cubby Bed Can Do
There are legitimate reasons a safety bed may be medically necessary or behaviorally recommended. For some learners, the Cubby Bed can reduce serious risks during the night, including:
Elopement from the home or bedroom
Pica-related ingestion of non-food items
Self-harm, especially when linked to nighttime agitation or dysregulation
Property destruction during night wakings
Secondary caregiver exhaustion from overnight monitoring
In these cases, the Cubby Bed offers families an immediate layer of physical security, helping both the child and caregivers rest much easier.
What the Cubby Bed Can’t Do
Here’s the critical distinction: while a safety bed may keep a child physically safe, it doesn’t improve the actual quality of sleep. A child may still experience:
Delayed sleep onset
Fragmented or shortened sleep cycles
Night wakings
Lack of restorative rest
It also won’t address the underlying behavioral contributors to poor sleep—things like inconsistent routines, ineffective bedtime transitions, or skill deficits in self-regulation. In short, it contains the behavior, but doesn’t change it.
Families may also face long wait times—sometimes 6 months or more—for insurance approval, and out-of-pocket costs can be significant (ranging $11,000-$14,000). That’s a long time to wait for a solution that doesn’t solve the sleep problem.
Where BCBAs—and Certified Behavioral Sleep Practitioners—Come In
It’s our job to help families balance immediate safety needs with long-term sleep outcomes. That means:
Assessing current sleep routines and environmental variables
Teaching prerequisite skills that make bedtime smoother and more predictable
Supporting transitions away from screens or stimulating activities
Collaborating with caregivers to reduce response effort while increasing success
Reinforcing daytime behaviors that contribute to better nighttime outcomes
And importantly, it means helping families understand the role of tools like the Cubby Bed—not as a standalone intervention, but as part of a broader, behaviorally informed plan.
Sleep Safety and Sleep Quality
If a safety bed is needed, we absolutely support that. But we also advocate for pairing it with behavioral strategies that promote real sleep health—for both the child and the entire family. Because sustainable sleep is about a lot more than containment—it’s about comfort, consistency, and confidence.
Want to Learn How to Integrate Sleep Strategies into ABA?
Enrollment is now open for the August cohort of The Sleep Collective, the only certification program designed for behavior analysts ready to become Certified Behavioral Sleep Practitioners. You’ll learn how to assess sleep needs, collaborate with caregivers, and design sleep plans that are sustainable, ethical, and truly effective.
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