Don't get up if your baby cries at night: Mothers SHOULD leave their babies to 'self-soothe' says leading expert
- Children move through a sleep cycle every 1.5 to 2 hours in which they wake up and then return to sleep
- Child development expert warns it is important for babies to learn how to fall asleep on their own
- Majority of babies who woke in the night were boys
Parents should resist the urge to rush to the cotside when their baby cries at night, say experts.
Instead, they say children should be left to soothe themselves back to sleep.
Researchers asked more than 1,200 parents about their children’s sleeping habits and found that by the age of six months there were two distinct groups.
While two-thirds slept through the night, a third woke up at least once a night.
Experts say it is best to leave babies to self-soothe rather than rushing to comfort them
The majority who failed to sleep through were boys, more likely to be breastfed and had mothers who were more likely to be depressed and have greater maternal sensitivity.
According to the study, published in the journal Developmental Psychology, babies move through a sleep cycle every one-and-a-half to two hours, where they briefly wake before nodding off again.
Professor Marsha Weinraub, from Temple University, Philadelphia, who led the study, said: ‘When mothers tune in to these night time awakenings... then he or she may not be learning how to self-soothe, something that is critical for regular sleep.’
She said the research supported the idea that infants should be put to bed at a regular time and are best left to fall back to sleep of their own accord.
She said: 'The best advice is to put infants to bed at a regular time every night, allow them to fall asleep on their own and resist the urge to respond right away to awakenings.'
Her new research, published in the journal Developmental Psychology, looked at the sleeping habits of more than 1,200 babies.
Professor Weinraub said: 'By six months of age, most babies sleep through the night, awakening their mothers only about once per week. However, not all children follow this pattern of development.'
During the study, the patterns of night time sleep awakenings of infants aged six to 36 months were measured.
Waking in the night is linked to a difficult temperament, irritability and being easily distracted, researchers say
The findings revealed two groups: sleepers and
transitional sleepers.'If you measure them while they are
sleeping, all babies — like all adults — move through a sleep cycle
every 1.5 to 2 hours, where they wake up and then return to sleep,'
'Some of them do cry and call out when they awaken, and that is called "not sleeping through the night".'
Her team asked parents of more than 1,200 infants to report on their child's awakenings
at 6, 15, 24 and 36 months.
They found that by six months of age, 66
per cent of babies - the sleepers - did not awaken, or awoke just once
per week, following a flat trajectory as they grew.
But a full 33 percent woke up seven nights per week at six months, dropping to two nights by 15 months and to one night per week by 24 months.
Of the babies that awoke, the majority
The transitional sleepers tended to score higher on tests that assess a difficult temperament that identified traits such as
irritability and distractibility.
And, these babies were more likely to be breastfed. Mothers of these babies were more likely to be depressed and have greater maternal sensitivity.
'Families who are seeing sleep
problems persist past 18 months should seek advice,' Professor Weinraub added.
Furthermore, it is important for babies to learn how to fall asleep on their own.
She added that the link between mothers feeling depressed and their babies waking is another area that would benefit from further research.
One theory is that mothers who are depressed at six and 36 months
may have been depressed during pregnancy- and this prenatal
depression could have affected the baby's neural development and sleep awakenings.
But it's also important to recognise that sleep deprivation can, of course, exacerbate maternal depression, she said.
'Because the mothers in our study
described infants with many awakenings per week as creating problems for
themselves and other family members, parents might be encouraged to
establish more nuanced and carefully targeted routines to help babies
with self-soothing and to seek occasional respite,' she said.
This research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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