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Home › Articles › Sleep Issues › Sleepy-time Stress

Sleepy-time Stress

Reviewing Sleep Strategies

By Laurie Dove

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When my daughter was born seven years ago, we were inseparable. I stayed awake at night just to admire her perfect nose and wonder at the perfect "O" of her Cheerio mouth. After waiting so long to see her, I couldn't bear to let her out of my sight. Today, I'm still trying to get her out of my bed.

Sleeping Baby My 2-year-old son, on the other hand, snuggles into his crib at a reasonable hour each night and slumbers until morning, the result of my desperation to get a good night's sleep. Weary from getting up every two hours of the night, I let my 9-month-old son cry a bit before rescuing him. Within a few days, he was sleeping all night.

Now that I regularly have a full night's sleep and the energy to ponder such things, I wonder which of my children will someday feel the effects of different sleep styles. Either I used the right method with my daughter and the wrong method with my son or vice versa.

For many parents, deciding how to handle a little night owl can be a big dilemma. The information about persuading babies to sleep through the night can be confusing and more than a little scary. There are more questions than answers: What are the long-term effects of letting my baby "cry it out"? Will she lose her trust in me? If I don't help Baby learn to fall asleep on her own, am I setting her up for a lifetime of sleep troubles?

According to James Maas, a professor of psychology at Cornell University who studies sleep patterns, the key to helping a baby develop nighttime habits starts in the morning. Nighttime wakefulness often is caused by what happens during the day. Too much or too little daytime stimulation, for example, can impact sleeping habits.

"Good sleeping patterns must be established early on; sleep should be treated as a necessity, not a luxury," Maas says. "Infants must get the required amount of sleep, usually nine hours, on a regular bedtime schedule."


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Re: Sleepy-time Stress by Ian on 01/23/2009 10:01AM

I have recently read the "Secrets of a Baby Whisperer," but it did't suggest getting in the crib. However what she does state is that the parent has initially trained the child to have a bad sleeping habit of which the cause needs to be identified, e.g. holding the baby until sleeping or sleeping in ther parents' bed etc. Once identified the baby needs to be trained to sleep on their own. One method in the case of a baby who is scared of their own crib is to not get in the crib but to gradually introduce the nursery to him, then eventually the crib but in small stages and even stay in the room. Then the final stage is to leave the room with Baby fast asleep. Bingo, re-trained. Seems to make sense to me.

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