Utah Childcare

What the Research Says on Helping Your Baby Fall Asleep on Their Own

The Facts about Baby Sleep Patterns

Babies don’t have a regular “day-waking, night-sleeping” pattern until they are about 4 months of old. Therefore, it is recommended to wait until your baby is at least 4 months old before you begin any kind of sleep training.

Talk to your child’s health care provider before starting sleep training, especially if your child has any special health care needs.

Parents Need Sleep Too

Parents who do not get good enough sleep for weeks and months are more likely to report they feel stressed, anxious, or depressed.

Research Looked at Two Methods: Graduated Crying It Out and Bedtime Fading

1.    Graduated Crying It Out is when parents put their baby down for the night and let the baby cry until they fall asleep. Parents check on their baby and wait longer and longer periods before checking in (starting at 2 minutes and gradually moving to 30 minutes). It is recommended parents not pick the baby up or talk to the baby while in their room.

2.    Bedtime Fading is when parents shift their child’s bedtime later by 10-15 minutes so that the child will fall asleep when it is bedtime. Whenever they fall asleep, that becomes their child’s bedtime.

What does the research say…

1.    Both graduated crying it out and bedtime fading helped babies fall asleep faster when compared to the parents that received information about infant sleep in general with no specific strategies.

2.     Moms who did one of these two strategies as compared to those who received general infant sleep information without strategies were less stressed.

3.    When graduated crying it out was used, babies slept more through the night and were less likely to wake during the night.

4.    The bedtime strategy that is picked does not impact the parent-child relationship.

If you would like to read more about this, check out the article on this website

https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/2724-helping-babies-learn-to-fall-asleep-on-their-own-what-research-says

Information adapted from the article “Helping Babies Learn to Fall Asleep On Their Own: What Research Says” by Rebecca Parlakian