SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT
Should my baby be sleeping through the night?
Sleep training culture wants us to think all babies should be sleeping through the night by six months. But when looking at the evidence, we see that sleeping through by six months isn’t actually rooted in any truth or science. If you’ve got a baby (or toddler!) at home and are feeling the pressure to sleep train because they’re still waking at night, know that waking and signaling for a caregiver at night is the norm. Most adults feel comforted by, and claim to sleep better with, the proximity of their loved ones, yet when a small child expresses this desire, it’s seen as problematic.
Let’s take a look at the research. Between 27% and 57% of 6 to 12 month olds are not sleeping 6 to 8 hour stretches without waking (Pennestri et al, 2018). In fact, the majority of babies up to the age of 18 months are waking at least 1 to 2 times a night (Hysing et al, 2014). The average wakes per night for 1 to 2 year olds range from 0 to 2.5, so while some toddlers are sleeping through, many are still waking 2 or more times per night (Galland, 2012).
One big area of concern for parents is that their babies and toddlers aren’t getting the sleep they need. After all, one of sleep trainers’ biggest selling points is that it’s this sleep deprivation in the early years that can lead to poor outcomes in health, cognitive, social and emotional development, academic performance, and much more.
But here’s the thing — we don’t have any data that proves brief night wakings constitute any "sleep deprivation.”
In fact, a 2018 Canadian study found just the opposite. In this longitudinal study, researchers looked at sleep patterns of over 350 infants found "no significant associations between sleeping through the night and concurrent or later mental development, psychomotor development, or maternal mood” (Pennestri et al, 2018). However, infants who slept for a 6 to 8 hour block at night often breastfed at a much lower rate!
A 2017 study looking at infants and toddlers over an 18 month period found no significant relationship between sleep and later cognitive development (Mindell et al, 2017). In fact, this team of researchers even found a modest relationship between night wakings and better cognitive outcomes!
Another 2012 study followed up on children who were in a randomized trial five years later. Some children were sleep trained and some were not — and researchers found no evidence of differences in their sleep, emotion regulation, or behavior (Price et al, 2012).
Yes, sleep is super important, and as tired parents, we’d all like more of it. But it’s important to consider the nature of the nightwakings - if your baby or toddler is just wakes briefly for a quick cuddle or a feed every few hours at night, this isn’t inherently problematic. And in fact, all of us have these brief arousals in the night when we turn over, get a drink of water, use the bathroom or snuggle closer to our partner. We would only consider this a problem if we had trouble falling back to sleep afterwards, and the same can be said for our children.
Know this:
Sleep. Will. Come.
Every baby is on their own trajectory, and even if you do absolutely nothing at all, they will eventually sleep through the whole night all by themselves (and you’ll probably miss them when they do!).
Remember that the research shows us that waking and signaling for a caregiver at night is the norm, not the exception, and tends to get better all on its own towards the end of the second year of life.
Remember too that sleep training does not teach babies how to sleep, it teaches them to stop signaling. And we know that babies who are sleep trained wake just as often as babies who aren’t. And sleep training often has to be repeated numerous times in the first year(s) — it’s not a one-and-done kind of thing.
Babies and toddlers are really good at getting the sleep they need. If all they’re doing is waking briefly for a feed or a cuddle and are back to sleep quickly, from their perspective, they are sleeping through the night (even if you aren’t!).
I promise where you are right now sleep-wise isn’t where you’ll be forever.
References:
Douglas, P. & Hill, P. (2013). Behavioral Sleep Interventions in the First Six Months of Life Do Not Improve Outcomes for Mothers or Infants: A Systematic Review. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 34(7), 497–507. https://doi.org/10.1097/DBP.0b013e31829cafa6
Galland, B., Taylor, B., Elder, D., & Herbison P. (2012). Normal Sleep Patterns in Infants and Children: A Systematic Review of Observational Studies. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 16(3), 213-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2011.06.001
Hall, W., Hutton, E., Brant, R., Collet, J., Gregg, K., Saunders, R., Ipsiroglu, O., Gafni, A., Triolet, K., Tse, L., Bhagat, R., & Wooldridge, J. (2015). A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Intervention for Infants' Behavioral Sleep Problems. Boston Medical Center Pediatrics, 15, 181. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-015-0492-7
Hysing, M., Harvey, A., Torgersen, L., Ystrom, E., Reichborn-Kjennerud, T., & Sivertsen, B. (2014). Trajectories and Predictors of Nocturnal Awakenings and Sleep Duration in Infants. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 35(5), 309-16. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000064
Loutzenhiser, L., Hoffman, J., & Beatch, J. (2014). Parental Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Graduated Extinction in Reducing Infant Night-Wakings. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 32(3), 282–291. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2014.910864
Mindell, J., Leichman, E., DuMond, C., & Sadeh, A. (2017). Sleep and Social-Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 46(2), 236-246. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2016.1188701.
Paavonen, E., Saarenpää-Heikkilä, O., Morales-Munoz, I., Virta, M., Häkälä, N., Pölkki, P., Kylliäinen, A., Karlsson, H., Paunio, T., & Karlsson, L. (2020). Normal sleep development in infants: findings from two large birth cohorts. Sleep Medicine, 69, 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2020.01.009
Pennestri, M., Laganière, C., Bouvette-Turcot, A., Pokhvisneva, I., Steiner, M., Meaney, M., & Gaudreau, H. (2018). Uninterrupted Infant Sleep, Development, and Maternal Mood. Pediatrics, 142(6):e20174330. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-4330.
Price, A., Wake, M., Ukoumunne, O., & Hiscock, H. (2012). Five-year follow-up of harms and benefits of behavioral infant sleep intervention: randomized trial. Pediatrics, 130(4), 643-51. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-3467.
What makes my approach different:
The whole gist behind most sleep training programs is that you have to follow their rules for it to work… even if it feels awful.
That’s not what we do here. I will never ask you to do anything that goes against your intuition.
You’re the expert, and you get to call the shots.
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