Letting your baby cry for controlled periods of time at night before offering comfort can help your child sleep better and won’t cause any long-term harm, a new study suggests.
The same is true for bedtime fading, a technique where parents gradually delay a baby’s bedtime with the goal of making the child more tired so he or she will fall asleep faster, according to the same study in Pediatrics.
Both “sleep training” techniques may also reduce stress on babies and their parents, the research indicates.
The findings are based on a small trial in Australia involving 43 babies. Although not definitive, they contradict fears that letting babies cry themselves to sleep at night causes stress and behavioral problems.
Sleep training is generally not recommended for very young babies. The study examined the effectiveness of the techniques on babies aged between 6 and 16 months.
Researchers divided the babies and their parents randomly into three groups. In one group, parents practiced “graduated extinction,” where they let their babies cry for gradually prolonged periods of time before attending to them. The idea behind this technique is that babies will learn to sooth themselves to sleep.
Parents in the second group implemented bedtime fading, where they delayed the baby’s bedtime.
For the third group – the control group – researchers simply gave parents information about child sleep.
After the trial period, babies in both sleep-training groups fell asleep more quickly than children in the control group, the study found. Babies whose parents used graduated extinction also woke up less often at night, compared to the control group babies.
The researchers also tested stress hormone levels in the babies’ saliva, and their mothers filled out questionnaires about their own stress levels. All the babies had normal stress hormone levels. However, sleep training was tied to a decrease in stress levels for both the infants and their moms.
Following up with the infants 12 months later, the researchers found no difference in behavioral and emotional well-being among babies in the 3 groups.
Does this mean you should try sleep training your child? Other research on the topic has shown mixed results. Ultimately, it’s up to you as a parent to decide what you feel comfortable with.
Have you tried or considered using a sleep training method on your child? What method, if any, do you prefer?
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