Babies bring a great deal of joy to a family, but they also bring sleep deprivation in many cases. However, you do not need to resign yourself to an endless number of sleepless nights. According to Dr. William Sears, one of the most common problems with a baby's sleeping patterns is a lack of parental consistency. Both parents need to agree about the methods they will use to get their baby to sleep, and stick to the same patterns every night. With time, practice and patience, eventually you and your baby will both get a good night's sleep every night.
Step 1
Plan certain times of day to schedule naps and bedtime. Make sure that the schedules are ones that you can stick to on a consistent basis. Prior to each nap and bedtime, plan an order of events that will signal to your baby that it is time to sleep. This is usually a combination of feeding, diaper changing or bathing, reading a story and cuddling. Sears compares the baby's developing brain to a computer, storing each association for future reference, making predictable routines a key component in infant sleep.
Step 2
Create a calm environment. Although babies do not need complete silence to sleep, and it is better not to create this association because it is impossible to maintain, it is still important that the environment be peaceful. Even if the rest of the house is chaotic, the baby's room should be calm. Dr. Harvey Karp, author of "The Happiest Baby," recommends the use of white noise as a way to soothe babies to sleep.
Step 3
Choose which method of sleep training you would like to use. Some parents prefer to comfort their child to sleep, even if it means attending to the baby multiple times throughout the night or sharing a bed. Other parents want their babies to learn to sleep independently and prefer a controlled-crying method, where they allow the baby to cry himself to sleep for a few nights as he learns to self-soothe. Sears advises both parents to be consistent with the method they choose so the baby will not become confused.
Tips and Warnings
- Always make sure to lay the baby in the crib on his back. Stomach sleeping is associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
