What is Sleep Training & How Do You Do It?

What is Sleep Training & How Do You Do It?
Want to get your child sleeping through the night, but don't know how or why you should? You'll get all your answers here.
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TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Jilly, pediatric nurse, LC, mom of 2 and I help tired parents get their babies sleeping great so they can LOVE this phase of raising babies.
Sleep training is the process of teaching your baby independent sleep habits so they can start sleeping through the night and taking long naps. It’s teaching your baby to fall asleep without your help and to self-settle back to sleep during the night.
The reason why independent sleep is important is this - the way that your baby falls asleep at bedtime is the way they need to fall back to sleep each time they wake at night.
We all wake throughout the night, even adults. Sometimes we fully wake up, have a sip of water, fix our pillow and fall back asleep. Other times we only half-wake, change positions and never remember it. It’s completely normal for everyone to wake throughout the night.
If your baby is nursed, rocked, bounced, held or patted to sleep at bedtime, they’re going to need your direct help each time they wake at night. As you know, this becomes exhausting for everyone.
Here’s an example: At bedtime, you feed your baby to sleep in a rocking chair. Once he’s asleep, you place him in the crib and tiptoe out of the room. Your baby fell asleep in your arms, nursing in his bedroom.
A few hours later, your baby wakes and his mental alarm bells start going off. He’s now in the crib, which is a different space from where he fell asleep. You are nowhere in sight, so that’s different too. And he doesn’t know how to fall back asleep without feeding. So he cries out for you. When you help your baby fall asleep, it becomes the only way they know how to fall asleep.
Please know that you haven’t done anything wrong! Most of us parents have helped our babies fall asleep. It’s perfectly natural, especially in the early months. Helping your baby fall asleep isn’t a problem until it’s a problem. It only becomes an issue when your baby is waking every hour or two all night long and needing your direct help to fall back asleep, which exhausts everyone.
Here’s another example: At bedtime you feed your baby, read a book together, place him in the crib awake, give him a kiss, turn off the light and walk out the door. He spends the next few minutes happily looking around before his eyelids get heavy and he falls asleep. Two hours later, he wakes and realizes he’s in the exact same environment that he was at bedtime. No mental alarm bells go off because nothing has changed. Plus, he knows how to fall back asleep on his own. He did it at bedtime.
The way that your baby falls asleep at bedtime is the way they need to fall back asleep every time they wake at night.
If your baby wakes throughout the night, and you’re both exhausted, the best thing to do is teach them how to settle themself to sleep. When your baby learns this skill, they’ll automatically start sleeping long stretches and only wake at night when truly hungry.
The concept is simple. But if you’ve never heard this before, it’s pretty eye-opening. And once you implement it, it’s truly life-changing.
When to start sleep training?
So, when is a good time to start sleep training? Independent sleep is possible from 5 months old (20 weeks from your baby’s due date if they were born early.)
This means that if your baby is 5 months or older, they have the ability to learn to sleep independently.
How long does sleep training take?
How long it takes for your baby to be sleep trained depends on several factors including the sleep training method you choose, your baby’s personality and your consistency.
For parents wanting big results within a few days, a quick option like the Ferber method sleep training is a good option.
Sleep training methods where parents are more hands-on, like the Chair Method and Pick Up Put Down tend to take a bit longer (5-14 days) but are still very effective.
Ultra-gentle sleep training (like my Minimal Tears method) can take a few weeks for babies to be sleeping independently. That’s because we undo one sleep association at a time.
Ultimately, for sleep training to be successful, parents need to be consistent with their sleep training plan and new routine. This is more likely to happen when parents can choose a sleep training method that’s well-suited for their baby.