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Baby's Sleep Issues
All about baby's sleeping patterns and bedtime safety.

What Is "Sleep Training"?
Help your baby sleep through the night, step by step.

Introduction

If you're at the end of your rope trying to get your baby to sleep, you can find help in the book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems (Simon & Schuster, 1986), by Richard Ferber, MD. Dr. Ferber's research during his years as director of Boston's Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital formed the basis for his method of helping your child learn to fall asleep on her own. Here's what Dr. Ferber has to say about sleep training:

Is Your Child a Candidate?

If your baby is healthy, developing normally, and is at least 5 months of age (based on the due date), she should have the ability to sleep through the night for at least nine hours, without the need for feedings, rocking, or other intervention.

If you must return repeatedly to feed, rock, or soothe your child, you may be satisfying the baby's expectations more than she needs. If the baby has long awakenings, despite your interventions, the problem may be that she's being kept in the crib longer than needed. For example, you may be keeping your child in the crib for 11 hours when she may only need nine hours of sleep.

Babies wake repeatedly during the night, every one to three hours, as part of normal sleep cycling (adults also awaken briefly during sleep). Rocking, patting, or feeding a baby at bedtime doesn't always mean that such interventions will have to be repeated at awakenings, but, if the baby seems to expect them, then it makes sense to help your baby learn to fall asleep without such expectations.

Ask yourself what the conditions will be when your baby is sleeping. Those are the conditions under which you must let your baby learn to fall asleep at bedtime and back to sleep after awakening during the night.

The learning process generally takes two to three days. Multiple nighttime feedings may have to be eliminated more slowly (for example, by increasing the minimal time between feedings by 30 minutes a night over one week). Since you must let your child fall asleep without the usual contact, there will be crying initially. There is no need to try to change things quickly. The program described here is designed so that you can help your child during the process, in a gradual manner, by checking on the child at increasingly longer intervals.

A Good-Night Plan

Each night, put your child to bed awake. Let your baby cry at first for a very short time. Then go in to reassure her for a minute or two without reestablishing much physical contact, such as rocking, patting, or offering a pacifier. The exception is feedings at prescribed intervals (the feedings should be eliminated by the end of the first week of the program). Interactions should be mainly limited to soothing talk and brief positioning of your infant. Each night, the time between visits should be increased until your child begins to fall asleep (and back to sleep) quickly and without interacting with you. You can adjust the number of minutes between reassuring visits to suit your own feelings as long as the times increase progressively.

Day 1: Wait five minutes before going in to reassure your
child, then 10 minutes, then 15. (If five minutes seems too long to you, start with three minutes, or even one minute, and increase the time from there.)

Day 2: Wait 10 minutes, then 15, then 20.

Day 3: Wait 15 minutes, then 20, then 25.

Day 4: If necessary, wait 20 minutes, then 25, then 30.

Day 5: If necessary, wait 25 minutes, then 30, then 35.

Day 6: If necessary, wait 30 minutes, then 35, then 40.

Day 7: If necessary, wait 35 minutes, then 40, then 45.

If the problem was really one of association, most children will be sleeping well by the end of three days, certainly by the end of one week. If the problem is not resolving itself, there may be another cause you have not identified. Discuss this with your pediatrician.

Your should know:

The information on this Web site is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your pediatrician or family doctor. Please consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have regarding your or your child's condition.