The 6 Sleep Stealers

Note: This article is geared towards babies who are ready to be sleep trained (over four months).

here are six main “sleep stealers,” or reasons why your child isn’t sleeping well; she may be affected by one of them, by a combination of several, or – if you’ve hit the jackpot – by all six.

• Physical activity should come before the routine.
• It should last 15 to 60 minutes at nighttime, and about 10 to 15 minutes before a nap.
• Do the routine in the same room where your child sleeps.
• Do approximately the same activities each time in the same order.

#2: YOUR CHILD NEEDS YOU TO FALL ASLEEP

It’s the most natural thing in the world to rock or feed your child to sleep, but doing this doesn’t help him stay asleep all night – many children who fall asleep this way awaken repeatedly. These disruptions are often caused at least partially by their dependence on certain conditions, or “sleep associations”  –  anything your child associates with falling asleep, including being held, rocking, sucking or falling asleep with a parent. Throughout the night, your child drifts into lighter sleep phases to check out her environment. During these “partial arousals,” she’s not fully conscious – and as long as nothing has changed significantly since she fell asleep, she returns to deeper sleep. But for many children, if something is different, this raises a red flag and she will need you to recreate the same conditions that were present when she fell asleep in the first place. Not all associations are bad; what’s important is that your child can recreate them on her own and put herself back to sleep.