“Sleep training” increases sleep and can be safe
“Sleep training” can be effective at helping infants fall asleep faster and wake up less overnight. I’m Dr. Wagner, a pediatrician.
The short version: Will sleep training help my baby who is at least 6 months old and otherwise healthy wake up less overnight? Yes
Is it safe for my baby’s emotional health and attachment to sleep train? Probably yes
Do I have to do it? As long as your baby gets enough overall sleep, absolutely not. There are no health benefits to babies from sleep training, sometimes parents just want to find ways to get longer stretches of sleep.
Longer version: A small 2016 study randomized 43 infants ages 6-16 months into three groups: usual care (control), graduated extinction (which I’ll call sleep training for ease – increasing amount of parental response time to baby’s overnight cries), and bedtime fading (delaying the infant’s bedtime by 15 minutes each night to encourage consolidation of nighttime sleep). Both sleep training and pushing bedtime back improved infants’ time to fall asleep, from about 17 minutes to 5-7 minutes after 3 months. Only the “sleep training” group decreased nighttime awakenings – from about 3 to 1 per night. They followed babies’ stress through cortisol levels and maternal stress, and both were actually slightly LOWER not higher in the sleep training group. There was no difference in measures of parental attachment, emotional or behavioral problems between groups at the 12 month follow up. All in all, this is a very small study but reassuring that if parents are looking for ways to help their baby who is 6 months or older sleep for longer stretches, “sleep training” can effectively reduce nighttime awakenings without significant negative behavioral or emotional consequences for baby.
