Sleep, Oh Wonderful Beautiful Sleep!
Nobody said parenting was going to be easy.
It’s 4:45 am and your wonderful, beautiful...ASSASSIN of a good night’s sleep abruptly wakes you from slumber. Your poor little guy has awoken with a thunderous eruption of high pitched sobbing.
Here’s the question you pose to yourself: “Oh God...do we let him cry it out this time?”
Well, you may be doing your bundle of joy a disservice if you DON’T start letting him cry it out.
Babies need to learn to “Self-Soothe”. They need to develop the ability to calm themselves to the point of relaxation, and eventually sleep. If we are always going in to “help” them, we are delaying their ability to do so.
A study published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics addresses this very issue. The study, done in Australia, looked at three groups of infants.
Group One: used “Graduated Extinction” - or - to the sleepy Dad, “Crying it Out.”. This group was instructed to allow the baby to cry for a few minutes at first, then go in and soothe the baby. Over the course of 12 months parents were to increase the amount of time before going in and soothing the child.
Group Two: used “Delayed Bedtime”. The goal of this group was to allow the child to develop “Sleep Pressure” by delaying bedtime each night by a couple of minutes.
Group Three: was the “Control Group” and did not change any of their night time routines.
Babies need to learn to “Self-Soothe”.
If we are always going in to “help” them, we are delaying their ability to do so.
The COOL part of this study is that they not only tracked the infant’s sleep patterns - but ALSO their cortisol levels (cortisol is our stress hormone) throughout the day [FOR A YEAR!]
The findings showed that using “Graduated Extinction” or “Crying it Out” produced longer periods of uninterrupted sleep - AND cortisol levels were NOT elevated. MEANING ...your little snowflake is NOT FREAKING OUT by you allowing them to self-soothe!
The “Delayed Bedtime” group found that it took less time between wakefulness and sleep. Cortisol levels remained the same.
The “Control Group” …. Well, they were the control group ... with a lot of stressed, sleep deprived, short fused Mommies and Daddies.
The lesson here is that we are not neglecting our bundles of wonderfulness by allowing them to develop the ability to soothe themselves. This not only helps US get a better night’s sleep, but MORE IMPORTANTLY, it helps our kids to sleep better too!