Researchers recently tested common techniques for improving
babies’ sleep, and found that both are effective and lead to no long-term risks
or developmental complications.
The researchers focused on two common sleep methods:
“graduated extinction” and “bedtime fading.” Graduated extinction is also
called “controlled crying,” and involves letting babies soothe themselves to
sleep without intervening every time they cry. Bedtime fading involves pushing
back a baby’s bedtime so that they fall asleep more quickly.
Results show that both techniques helped babies fall asleep
more quickly, and controlled crying helped babies sleep more soundly with fewer
disruptions throughout the night.
Even more significantly, the researchers discovered that
neither sleep technique negatively affected the babies’ emotional development
or their ability to socially and emotionally bond with their parents. These
results are important, because many parents hesitate to use sleep techniques
for fear of upsetting their child or damaging the child’s development.
Controlled crying in particular worries parents, because it
requires parents to ignore their baby’s cries so the child can learn to
self-soothe. Many parents express concern that this technique will cause
emotional damage or cause their child to have attachment issues. However, the
research team in this recent sleep study suggest that these worries are
unfounded.
The study included 43 babies aged 6-16 months and their
parents. According to the parents, all of the babies had problems sleeping.
Researchers divided the parents into three groups: one group was told to
practice controlled crying, one group practiced bedtime fading, and the third
acted as a control and changed nothing about their babies’ sleep habits.
Parents in the controlled crying group were instructed to wait
a few minutes before responding to their baby’s nighttime cries. After waiting,
parents could comfort their baby but not pick up or hold the child. The parents
gradually increased the wait time between hearing their child’s cries and
responding.
Parents in the bedtime fading group were told to push back
their baby’s bedtime by 15 minutes for a few nights. If the baby continued to
have trouble falling asleep, the parents could push the bedtime back an
additional 15 minutes.
After three months, researchers found that the babies in the
training groups fell asleep an average of 10 to 13 minutes faster than the
babies in the control group. The control group babies experienced little to no
change in their sleep habits.
The researchers also found that babies in the controlled
crying group woke up only once or twice per night by the end of the study. When
the study began, the babies in this group were waking up an average of three
times per night.
The sleep training also had positive effects on stress
levels for the babies and their mothers. Moms in the study experienced a
decline in their stress levels after one month. Babies in the sleep training
groups also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol compared to the
control group, according to saliva samples taken by the researchers.
The study also tested for the possibility of any long-term
negative effects of the sleep training techniques. A year after the study began,
children from all three groups showed similar emotional and behavioral
development, as well as attachment to their parents. The researchers are confident that sleep
training is a healthy and effective way to treat babies’ sleep problems.