I’m always awake with my baby – how can I help myself and get more sleep? During the first months of life babies wake regularly at night. So, as a parent, it’s completely normal to experience sleep disturbances and sleep deprivation. Nevertheless, there are a few things that you [...]
How might she respond during the coronavirus pandemic, and what can I do? The changes to our routine related to COVID-19 can be very stressful for everyone, including little ones. Remember that feelings of fear, anger, and boredom are normal reactions children may display during this stressful [...]
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 [...]
How do dads impact baby’s sleep? Research on the role of fathers in infant sleep development is overall scarce, but there are some findings on this topic that demonstrate how a father’s involvement in caregiving is related to infant sleep. Overall mothers do more infant nighttime caregiving [...]
How can my (mom’s) stress and mood affect my baby’s sleep? Can my sleep problems (or my infant sleep problems) sometimes affect our bonding? Emotional distress (such as anxiety, stress, and depression) in moms is significantly associated with disrupted sleep in infants. Studies have shown that [...]
I just had a baby, how can I get the best sleep possible? (is there a difference between whether I room-share with my baby or not?) You’ll be woken up, it’s almost inevitable – but try not to worry about when you will be woken up next; you’ll sleep better. You should expect that your sleep [...]
What are nighttime fears? How is that different from something like an anxiety disorder? How can I respond to nighttime fears? Nighttime fears involve any fears that are associated with being in the dark and/or alone at bedtime or during the night. The most common nighttime fears are fear of being [...]
What is the Huggy Puppy? How can it help children who are afraid at night or who are having trouble sleeping because they were exposed to trauma? The Huggy Puppy intervention (HPI) was developed by Professor Avi Sadeh as a brief intervention to help young children cope with severe stress [...]
I’m about to have a baby and have had depression in the past. Am I at risk for postpartum depression? A history of depression is a known risk factor for postpartum disorder. However, it is important to remember that the meaning of a risk factor is that it statistically increases the probability [...]
I’m pregnant. What can I expect about my sleep? Many women experience sleep disturbances during pregnancy, but this does not mean that every woman will have poor sleep when pregnant. You may end up being one of the lucky ones, although most women experience changes in their sleep. Studies that [...]