As a pediatric Sleep Coach, I define sleep training as anything a parent does to help their child sleep better during the night or for naps. It often includes working on having a child fall asleep without being held or fed.
There are several different types of sleep training methods, and within each type, there may be more than one variation. In my experience as a Sleep Coach I have seen that the more gentle the method, the longer the training may take. This is something important to consider when deciding which sleep training method to use.
For the first three years of my son’s life, I rarely slept through the night because he almost never did. Not only was this a very tiring time of my life, it was very confusing. I was reading a lot of different books about how to get him to sleep and they all seemed to suggest different ways to accomplish this goal. There were so many different options out there, but how would I know what would actually work? Confusion about what sleep training method to use is something I often hear from parents, who may have also received advice and information from many different sources.
Sleep Basics
Did you know that none of us sleep through the night without waking up? We all have partial awakenings when we switch through sleep cycles.[1] The basic idea with sleep training methods is that if children do not know how to fall asleep at bedtime, they will not know how to go back to sleep when they go through these partial awakenings during the night.[2] It is also important to note that whatever sleep training method you use, you will also need to be sure your child is going to sleep at appropriate times for their age[3] and that there are no underlying medical conditions that could be affecting their sl...
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...ng in the room with your child, but your child seems to be very angry with you because you are not picking them up, you can switch methods. In general, I have found it is easier to start with a more gentle method, and then if that is not working, go to a slightly less gentle method.
Works Cited
1. WebMD: Stages of Sleep, 2012
2. Nationwide Children's Hospital - Neurosciences Center: Sleep in Infants (2-12 Months), 2003
3. "Cry It Out (CIO) is a broad phrase that refers to any method of training a child to sleep through the night that involves allowing a baby to cry for a given amount of time. Though often associated with Dr. Richard Ferber, Ferber never used the term in his book, Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" About.com Baby's First Year: Cry It Out, 2014
4. The New York Times-Health: For Getting Baby to Sleep, Sticking to a Plan Is What Counts , 2006
Karp, Harvey. The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer. New York, NY: Bantam, 2002. Print.
In different countries and cities, infant caretaking styles can differ widely due to varying cultures and values. For example, the study done by Morelli, Rogoff, Oppenheim and Goldsmith in 1992 revealed differences in the infant sleeping practices between Mayan parents and U.S. parents from Utah. While more Mayan parents preferred to let their infants sleep on their bed to develop a close mother-infant bond, more U.S. parents preferred to keep their infants on a separate bed and to let them sleep alone as soon as possible in order to allow their child to become independent (Morelli et al., 1992). The purpose of this study is to examine the caretaking practices of a current parent through an interview and to compare and contrast the parent’s
Newborns do not contribute much to society at large. In fact, they do not do much in general. It is impossible to know the details of what goes on in an infant’s mind. One of the things we do know about newborns is that sleep is crucial and they spend an average of 16-18 hours each day sleeping (Ward, 2015). This paper will examine the experiences of one mother’s decisions in regard to sleeping arrangements and the values, both cultural and personal, that support these arrangements. It will also compare her decisions to the decisions of U.S. and Mayan mothers discussed in the research article “Cultural Variation in Infants’ Sleeping Arrangements: Questions of Independence.” The mother who was interviewed for this paper is 54 years old and
12 March 2014. “Co-Sleeping Safety.” PhD in Parenting. n.p. 11 January 2009. Web.
Statistics show the impact that preemies are causing as the rate of preterm birth increases every day. Any part of the world is affected no matter how advanced they are in technology. “One of every eight infants born in the United States is premature babies” (Medline Plus). These statistics are extremely high, however people can change it by getting involved in the community and helping preemies have a less chance to lose in their battle for life. In 2003; 499,008 infants were born prematurely (National Center for Health Statistics). The rates of preterm births have increased over the years. "In 1995: 11.0% of live births were born preterm, In 2006: 12.8% of live births were born preterm"(March of Dimes-Peristats). As the numbers keep increasing, many families are suffering and losing hope for they’re babies. African American women have the highest rate of preterm birth in 2004 with a 17.6% (Reedy, 2007). These statistics demonstrate the high frequenc...
Parenting has many different approaches for various tasks. One of the most difficult tasks for most parents is bed time. What do you do when it is far past bedtime and your little one is reluctant to go to sleep? Do you put them in their room, walk away and check on them periodically? Do you snuggle them to dream land? Both techniques have their pros and cons. The checking on them periodically, otherwise know as the cry it out method, coined by Dr. Richard Ferber is the first major method. The second method, the cuddling is known as attachment parenting, developed by Dr. William Sears. Weighing out the pros and cons of both sleep solutions will help you choose which method is best for you and your family.
Sorensen, J., & Abbott, E. (2004). The Maternity and Infancy Revolution. Maternal & Child Health Jounal, 8(3), 107-110. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14089739&site=ehost-live
The short-term benefits to infants of co-sleeping with their mothers would be increase breast feeding which promotes bed-sharing, increase sleep interval and duration, less crying time, increase compassion to mother’s communication (McKenna, Mosko , & Richard, pg. 604). Short-term benefits to mothers who co-sleep with their infants would be more sleep time with gratification, increase sensitization to infant’s physiological-social status, increase wellbeing and the ability to understand developmental signals from the infant, and improved skill to supervise and accomplish infant wants (McKenna, Mosko , & Richard, pg. 604). Long-term benefits of co-sleeping for infants are under-represented, but it can spread relief with sexual identity, infants become independent and increase control of their reactions and anxiety, and they become more self-determining in task problem solving and initiating because they are better at being unaccompanied (McKenna, Mosko , & Richard, pg. 604). Parents should know the benefits of co-sleeping either long-term or
Throughout the world, for centuries, parents and infants have engage in many different sleeping arrangements. In the Western World solitary sleeping is strongly encouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Solitary sleeping, or sleeping in separate rooms and separate beds, is said to promote the infants independence and reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The AAP has even issued multiple warnings on the dangers of shared sleeping arrangements, citing concerns regarding the safety, wellbeing, and the independence of the child. While the health and safety of an infant is the top priority for all the Western idea of solitary sleeping does not consider the different cultural beliefs of others. Therefore, despite
Beginning in the 80s, divorce rates began to skyrocket and parenting itself started to become hands off. On top of all this, there were a few people who gave advice on baby care. This being the hot topic of these decades (BBC). One of these people, Nancy Kohner wrote, "For the first two months or so, the safest way for babies to sleep is on their fronts, head to one side, or else curled up on one side. Then if they are sick there is no chance that they will choke." This was horrible advice from the child rearing "experts" at the time because they hadn't realized the baby would suffocate if placed face down (Gil, Ali, Jenny). For older children disciplining had transferred into the reasoning and praising of good behavior. The 1990s saw the continued rising of divorce rates and an increase in close parenting. This close parenting was known as “helicopter parenting". This form of parenting created antisocial behavior from children, yet children were increasingly independent
Feldman, Ruth, Weller, Aron, Sirota, Lea & Eidelman, Arthur I. (2002). Skin-to-skin contact (kangaroo care) promotes self-regulation in premature infants: Sleep-wake cyclicity, arousal modulation, and sustained exploration. Developmental Psychology, 38, 194-207. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.38.2.194
Sleep training is the process of helping babies to develop a regular sleep routine that leads to longer sleeping hours at night. There are various methods proposed, but the most important thing to remember is to be consistent.
Much of society mistakenly believes that each individual needs eight hours of sleep in order to have a full night’s rest. This is untrue because the amount of sleep you need has a large dependence on the many factors that influence healthy energy. Age is a large indicator of how much sleep is relevant to an individual. Studies done by Milner (2008), “Benefits of napping and an extended duration of recovery sleep on alertness and immune cells after acute sleep restriction” show that an adult needs nine hours a day in order to carry out work productively, feel rejuvenated, and maintain contented moods. In contrast, infants tend to need more time to rest their bodies even though they are less active. A young baby spends 2/3rds of their day
Sleep loss and shifting sleep patterns are known to be widespread across college campuses throughout the United States and the world at large. Yet, while many studies exist relating sleep to performance, a much smaller amount of studies focus on the Through analysis of these sources as they would prove useful when researching and writing upon the idea of sleep and its correlation to academic performance it was found that a paper titled “Sleep-Wake Patterns and Academic Performance in University Students”, which was presented to the European Conference on Educational Research, is overall the most useful source represented to research the topic.
the sleeper will gradually descend deeper into sleep, becoming more and more detached from the outside world and progressively more difficult to awaken. Stage three is the beginning of deep sleep, occurring about thirty to forty five minutes after you first fall asleep. The deepest sleep occurs in Stage four. Stage three and four has the biggest and slowest brain wave. REM sleep, a mentally active period during which dreaming occurs, provided a biological explanation for this phenomenon. Scientists found that brain activity during REM sleep begins in the pons, a structure in the brainstem, and neighboring midbrain regions. The pons sends signals to the thalamus and to the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for most thought processes. There are several myths about sleep. For one, how much sleep a person should get? According to our text book people should sleep for at least eight hours to maintain sound mental and physical health. But every one doesn’t get the chance to sleep for that amount of time. There is no normal amount of time you should sleep. Everyone is not the same. For one I might sleep for five hours and feel refreshed enough to work another shift. Other hand my cousin might need more then eight hours of sleep to feel refreshed.