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Getting Baby to Sleep Through the NightCorrecting Myths About Normal Infant Sleep Patterns
Infant sleep is a much misunderstood topic. This article discusses common sleep problems such as night waking and examines the effects of sleep training techniques.
Certain myths about infant sleep persist in Western culture, distorting the facts about the needs and normal sleep development of babies, and resulting in harmful attitudes and practices. Understanding what is normal and what babies need will hopefully lead to parents making more humane, loving decisions about how to deal with sleep problems. Why Baby Wakes at Night All babies wake during the night. This is a biological fact rather than a problem, says Elizabeth Pantley in The No-Cry Sleep Solution [Better Beginnings, 2002]. It is true that babies wake more often than adults. This is because they have shorter sleep cycles, Pantley explains, and so have more periods of ‘active', or REM sleep. Dr. William Sears, paediatrician and co-author of The Baby Book and Baby Sleep Book [Harper Thorsons, 2005], argues that allowing babies to have these active sleep periods encourages learning and optimal brain development. Dr. Sears goes on to say that night waking is adaptive behaviour for infants. If they did not wake up in the early months, they might go without needed food, warmth, or air. Sears also says that an infant's need for human comfort, at whatever age, is just as legitimate as his physical needs, and should be responded to even if this is inconvenient for parents at night. Effects of Controlled Crying The ‘controlled crying’ technique, or 'Ferberizing' as named after Richard Ferber, the controversial sleep 'expert', involves leaving babies to cry for longer and longer periods at night, in order to train them to sleep through the night. Margot Sutherland, in The Science of Parenting [Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2006], explains that this technique can actually lead to harmful levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the baby’s system. Cortisol can stay in the brain at high levels for hours, and over a prolonged period “can cause damage to key structures and systems in a developing brain”. Studies have found that uncomforted crying in infants can affect later IQ, cause Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, and lead to inability to regulate one's emotional state. The Australian Association for Infant Mental Health states its concern that “the widely practiced technique of ‘controlled crying’ is not consistent with what infants need for their optimal emotional and psychological health, and may have unintended negative consequences.” The AAIMH states that infants whose crying is promptly responded to, settle more easily in the long run, as their emotional needs are met. This is echoed by Deborah Jackson in Three In a Bed [Bloomsbury Publishing, 2003]. Jackson argues that the sleep ‘problems’ so endemic in our culture, in older children and even adults, can be traced to being forced to sleep alone, effectively abandoned at night, at a far too early age. Another problem with controlled crying, or ‘crying it out’, is that even if the baby responds by eventually sleeping through and not crying at night (which may take several nights or weeks), many parents will testify that as soon as something changes again – for example, moving house, or a milestone such as teething or crawling – the waking and crying can begin all over again, putting babies and parents through more trauma. See the article Reasons Not to Sleep Train for further information on the ethics of sleep training. Co-Sleeping or Sleeping Separately Dr. Sears explains in The Baby Book that many babies need to be 'parented to sleep', not simply 'put to sleep'. This can mean being rocked or nursed to sleep. Parents often think that this is indicative of a sleep problem, but this behaviour is in fact, completely normal. Deborah Jackson cites studies to back this up, showing that the physiological as well as psychological needs of babies are best met by sleeping close to their parents. Even if parents do not choose to sleep with their baby, which contrary to popular belief is not unsafe if guidelines are followed, it makes sense that babies, who need our help to do everything else, would need our help to go to sleep too. They are dependent beings by nature, and are not meant to be 'independent' at this age. Baby Sleeping Through as a Reflection of Parenting Skills According to this belief, parents are judged on the ‘goodness’ of their baby, in terms of whether he or she ‘sleeps through’. Some theorists believe that babies are predisposed to be 'good' or 'poor' sleepers, regardless of what the parents do. Perhaps it would be preferable if parents were evaluated in how responsive and caring they were towards their babies, rather than forcing them to reach a developmental milestone which Dr. Sears and others argue will happen eventually anyway. The age at which babies are able to settle themselves back to sleep varies widely, but there are humane, gentle approaches that can help them to do so. For example, see The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley [Better Beginnings, 2002].
The copyright of the article Getting Baby to Sleep Through the Night in Parenting Methods is owned by Hayley Nichols. Permission to republish Getting Baby to Sleep Through the Night in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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