Many parents choose sleep training to get their babies to sleep through the night. In countries like the U.S. and the U.K., “training” a baby to sleep through the night is practically a rite of passage—one endorsed by more than six in 10 baby books, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and countless parenting experts and baby brands. sleep training varies, but the general idea is that, by deliberately limiting your response to your restless or crying baby, you can help them fall asleep independently—and stay asleep all night. Two of the most common approaches—called “extinction” methods given their purpose to “extinguish” a baby’s signaling (i.e., crying) for a caregiver—are “controlled crying” (leaving a baby to cry on their own for set, increasing periods before soothing them) or “cry-it-out” (often understood to be leaving them to cry for as long as it takes for them to fall asleep). Other, “gentler,” versions include those like “camping out” or the “chair method,” where parents sit next to a crib and gradually move further away. sleep-trained babies sleep better, most of those findings, including three-quarters of the studies in one frequently cited 2006 review, come from parents’ sleep diaries. If a baby has learned not to “signal,” parents will unlikely know each time they wake. The few studies done using objective sleep measures, like video or actigraphy (monitoring movements to assess sleep-wake patterns), have found that sleep training has little, if any, effect on a baby’s sleep. trying a gentler strategy, in which the parent never ignores a baby’s signaling (no matter what the clock says). In one such method, parents settle an infant in the usual way and always respond to their infant’s cries, but gradually withdraw their usual soothing technique—for example, rocking a baby and putting them down the moment before they fall asleep, moving progressively towards patting or stroking to sleep, then to verbal soothing—but always soothing (such as a cuddle) if a baby starts crying. One small, recent study found this approach decreased babies’ parent-perceived overnight waking more than controlled crying, but, perhaps more importantly, resulted in less child stress (as perceived by the parent), less maternal stress, and fewer symptoms of maternal depression than the controlled crying group.
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Monday, January 20, 2025