Babies are renowned for doing many things, but sleeping, crying and pooping are definitely the top three. They roughly need between 9-12 hours of it a day. While this is very fragmented sleep, there are ways for you to manipulate the cycle they might have, whether they are sleeping all day and awake all night. Sleep training is an effective method to help parents get back on track to a normal sleeping routine.
It usually takes three to six months for your baby to develop their internal body clock (circadian rhythm). They will naturally begin to want to sleep at night and be awake more during the day. If you are ready to get your baby to sleep when it’s time, then sleep training might just be the key to a good night’s sleep for you and the family.
What Exactly Is Sleep Training?
The ultimate goal is to make sure your baby is happy and comfortable enough to sleep throughout the night without waking up. However, if they do, it’s a way of teaching them to not be so dependent and learn how to self-soothe themselves back to sleep. It creates health and natural boundaries and life lessons to carry on with them into early adulthood.
Over the years, there have been countless methods and techniques developed by mothers and experts who are all aiming for the same goal. Once they’ve been sleep-trained, your babies can sleep up to 12 hours at night fully undisturbed and come out hopeful and rested. While it’s important to note that sleep training is just as important as making a comfortable, dark environment or maybe your babies prefer a night light. All these things will come with a learning curve but they will all be worth it in the end.
When To Start Sleep Training
The recommended time to start sleep training is when they’re between 4-6 months old, just as their circadian rhythm is developing. These are some of their most impressionable moments so they will pick up behaviours and sleeping patterns.
If you are completely unsure and don’t want to rush the process, then six months is a steady benchmark, and as late as nine months. There is research to suggest that nine months is the best time to start, as they are less likely to need feeding at night. But this is all to do with what you do as a parent, right?
Most parents struggle with knowing when their baby is ready for sleep training but a good tip to look out for is that if they are already falling asleep on their own at night, then they are ready.
It is also important to note that only some babies will need sleep training. You might be fortunate to have a baby that naturally goes to sleep at night when they are supposed to, but it’s always great to know the techniques just in case. When babies struggle to sleep, it can be stressful for both baby and parents and lead to issues down the line such as depression, poor health, and paediatric insomnia. But if the correct techniques are used, you are more likely to have both a happy baby and happy parents.
How Long Does Sleep Training Take?
This is completely dependent on not only the technique and your baby but also other external factors but it can happen as little as overnight, while trial and error might take over a month for others. But on average, experts say it could take up to a week of consistent sleep training to create successful results.
Once you start the sleep training technique, the best thing you can do is maintain it as best you can; consistency is a huge key to this. But also, if you keep finding that your toddler is struggling to stay asleep and is restless, look at things around their room, such as blackout blinds, have they eaten? Could they be unwell? There are a lot of factors that could help your baby sleep, along with a good sleep training technique.
Sleep Training Methods
There are many different methods for you to consider; there is no right or wrong way to sleep train but here are some you can choose from.
Cry-It-Out Method
I’m sure we’ve all heard about this technique, which is basically what it says in the title. Essentially, you are teaching your baby to not be so dependent on you but also teaching them the skills to self-soothe and fall back to sleep. Although it might be hard for parents to not intervene when they hear their baby cry, you must let it run its course.
No-Tears Method
This method is, again, how it sounds and is the complete opposite of the cry-it-out method. This is a more gradual method where you are slowly weaning them off old habits and introducing new ones to them. So for example, if they are used to rocking before bed and crying unless they do, you can try rocking less and less until they don’t cry when you put them down without rocking.
Substitution Method
Another form of the no-tears method involves a subtle substitution. For example, if your baby is used to being fed before bed, you want to get them out of that habit so you could start reading a book before bedtime and slowly introduce it, eventually replacing it.
Camp Out
First, you will need to grab a blanket, pillow, chair or even a mattress and lie next to your baby’s crib and soothe them till they fall asleep. This could be through rubbing their belly or gently patting them till they fall asleep.
After a couple of nights of this technique, try to slowly stop to the point where you are only sitting next to them without soothing them.
Sleep Lady Shuffle
This method is perfect for those parents struggling with a baby showing signs of separation anxiety. Addressing this early on is by far the best way to prevent any of these issues in their early adolescence.
It is very similar to camping out but it has to be in a chair and every few minutes you move further and further away from the crib, still making sure your little one can see you but continuing the process until you are no longer in sight.
Soothing the baby doesn’t always have to be through touch so voice reassurance is enough and teaches your baby that while you are not in the room, you are still close. Repeat until you can put them down and walk out without crying.
Pick-Up-Put-Down Method
The ultimate goal is to make your baby feel drowsy enough that they physically cannot sleep without being on their own. What I mean by that is putting your baby down in the crib when they are really sleepy but still away and then, if they wake up fully, you pick them up and soothe them till you find them getting sleepy again.
When you check on them, you can pick them up for a few minutes to give them some physical reassurance and soothe them. Keep repeating this process until they fully fall asleep on their own without fussing.
Ferber Method
Similar to the pick-up-put-down method, this is quite the opposite, meaning you put your baby down even when they are crying and you will still come back to check on them at intervals. Another main difference between the Ferber and pick-up methods is that you under no circumstances pick them up to soothe them and will have to find alternative ways, such as gently patting them, reading to them or whatever calms them down.
Eventually, the timed intervals will increase and you shouldn’t need to check on your baby as often.
Final Thoughts
There is a method and technique for everything and you bet that sleeping isn’t immune from that. These techniques offer a variety of ways to soothe and teach your baby how to sleep comfortably through the night. Trails and errors will be common but there will be a time when your baby doesn’t need to rely on you so heavily. You just need to remember to persevere and remember that it’s not just the technique you need to consider but also the lighting and comfort of the space. Consider some quality blinds in Watford or night lights; all these things you will learn as time goes on.
