Sleep Training Secrets

The human brain is powered by sleep. To obtain the best health advantages, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises that babies aged 4-12 months sleep between 12-16 hours each 24-hour period (including naps). Children aged 1-2 years require 11-14 hours of sleep per day, while those aged 3-5 require 10-13 hours.For both newborns and parents, not getting enough Zzz's can have a variety of implications. Frequent night wakings have been linked by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to postpartum depression in mothers, future kid obesity, behavioral issues, and more. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child author Marc Weissbluth, M.D. adds that newborns who don't receive enough consolidated REM sleep have shorter attention spans and don't learn as well. They also produce more cortisol, a stress hormone that leads to frequent nocturnal wakings and shortened naps.What is the key to reversing these detrimental effects? Begin a sleep-training program that is helpful for your child. If required, consult your physician to rule out any underlying medical conditions that may be keeping your kid up at night (such as GERD, sleep apnea, or allergies). Then make sure you and your spouse are on the same page, and use these sleep training strategies to get your baby to sleep.

1. Keep a Sleep Log

Keeping a sleep diary might help you spot trends in your baby's sleeping patterns. Begin by keeping track of their days and nights for a week, then use the information to determine their optimal bedtime. "Oh, she's always cranky about 7 p.m.—that's definitely when I should be putting her down," you could remark. A journal may also reveal that your baby isn't crying as much as you imagined; at 2 a.m., five minutes of fussing might feel like 50 minutes.

2. Create a Bedtime Routine

Perform bedtime rituals each night to calm your baby's mind and prepare his or her body for sleep. Bathing, reading, and singing lullabies are all good ways to relax. Remove anything exciting from the scenario, such as tickling, watching TV, or playing with electronic gadgets. A consistent schedule helps your baby learn when it's time to go to bed and establishes their internal clock.

3. Pick an Effective Start Date

There's no such thing as an ideal moment to begin sleep training, so try to avoid timing it around significant life events for your child (time changes, a new nanny, teething, a different bedroom, etc.) Most parents start on Friday to take advantage of the forthcoming weekend—and others utilize vacation days to avoid work-related sleep loss. Remember that if your infant has been napping properly, you will always be more effective.

4. Set the Nursery Scene

The atmosphere is incredibly crucial when it comes to sleep training your infant. Maintain a pleasant and comfortable temperature in the room, preferably between 65 and 70 degrees. Consider adding room-darkening curtains if your baby's room gets a lot of light and she struggles with naps and early wake-ups.

5. Choose a Sleep-Training Technique

Effective sleep-training methods differ depending on the family and the child. Here are a few common choices to think about.

Parents use calming ways to assist their infant fall asleep using the fading approach (feeding, rocking, talking, etc.) Over time, your baby will demand less comfort, allowing you to gently "fade out" of their nighttime ritual.

The Ferber Method encourages parents to check on their screaming kid at increasingly longer intervals, encouraging self-soothing and independent sleeping.

Pick-Up/Put-Down Method: When a baby cries or fusses, parents pick them up and console them before putting them down, repeating until they fall asleep.

Cry It Out Method: Babies are left to "cry it out" until they fall asleep on their own after their evening ritual.

Mom or Dad stays on a chair next to the crib until the baby falls asleep, trying not to soothe if they become fussy. Each night, they pull the chair further away from the crib until they're out of the room and out of sight.

6. Ditch the Sleep Crutches

No matter the sleep-training method you choose, once your baby is older than 3 or 4 months, you should cease using sleep crutches (such rocking, singing, or nursing to sleep), according to Kim West, author of Good Night, Sleep Tight: The Sleep Solution. The Gentle Lady's Guide to Getting Your Baby to Sleep. ""These aren't terrible or unpleasant habits," West explains, "but they become an issue when they're so strongly associated with slumber in the child's head that he can't go asleep without them." "If you keep using these sleep aids, your baby will need you to rock, sing, or milk them every time they wake up—but the idea is to educate them to self-soothe and go back asleep on their own.

7. Stay Consistent

Inconsistency is one of the most common mistakes parents make, regardless of the sleep-training strategy they adopt. Even if you believe you've all gotten over the sleep-training hump, your tiny one will scream for you in the middle of the night at some time. Check on them to make sure everything is well; just make sure you don't go back into an old sleep habit at this time. After that, if you're able, console them from outside the door. If you fall behind in your training due to illness or travel, get back on track as quickly as feasible. You risk undermining the weeks of hard work you've already put in if you don't do so.

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