What does “sleep through the night” actually mean? Not surprisingly, this means different things to different people and it strongly depends on the age of the child. Sleeping through the night involves several hours of consolidated sleep. For a 5-year-old this might be 10-12 hours. For a [...]
What are the top 4 sleep training myths? 1) If you sleep train, you have to let your baby cry it out There are many ways to approach helping a baby learn to sleep through the night, and the specific techniques we recommend depend on the age of the child and parent or family preferences. There are [...]
How do I get the television (and other electronics!) out of my child’s room without causing a week-long meltdown? In general, toddlers who have electronics in their room and use them right before bedtime get less sleep and have more sleep problems than ones who don’t. It may appear that the [...]
What are some baby sleep myths? There will be long-term negative consequences for babies who are sleep trained Parents are sometimes concerned that if they sleep train their infants there will be long-term negative consequences. However, there does not seem to be evidence to support this claim. [...]
What is Ferber sleep training? The Ferber method is a type of modified (or graduated) extinction approach to sleep training. In the case of bedtime, extinction (unmodified) is simply a fancy way of saying “ignoring a specific behavior (like crying) until it stops.” It does not mean ignoring [...]
My baby won’t sleep – what am I doing wrong? Parents (and others in their lives) may blame themselves when their little one doesn’t sleep well, but it is important to recognize that many aspects of a baby’s sleep are not related to parenting. Your baby might have a medical condition, such [...]
What should I know about toddler sleep? 1. It is normal for toddlers (and everyone else!) to wake several times during the night. 2. Most toddlers (over 80 %) stop taking naps between the ages of 3 and 4 years, but some will still need a nap at age 5 years and a few may even need a nap at age 6 [...]
When should I consider putting a small mattress on the floor for my toddler? If your child is falling asleep in your bed (the primary adult caregiver’s bed) and needs to have physical contact with you to do so, using a small mattress on the floor next to your bed can be a great first step in [...]
Why does my baby cry? Babies cry for many reasons. Many parents believe that crying always signals distress. Unfortunately, we cannot guess or know exactly what an infant feels when he wakes up during the night. However, we do know that crying is a very powerful form of early communication. Infants [...]
What is a sleep regression? There has been a great deal of talk about “sleep regressions.” What is a sleep regression? A sleep regression is reported to occur when a baby who was sleeping well (or relatively well) all of a sudden has a sleep issue, whether that issue is falling asleep at [...]