Sleep Training: Does It Work?

You’re about to have a baby, and you are—like many parents—bracing yourself for one year of sleepless nights. We’ve all heard the horror stories after all. 

But what if those nights didn’t last for a full year though? What if, by some magic, your baby is able to sleep through the night before mat-leave ends? While it sounds like a fairy tale or dream come true, it is simply the result of sleep training.

Sleep training is a method of teaching your infant how to sleep. It trains infants on both how long they should sleep and how to put themselves to bed or back to bed. As training progresses, children begin to sleep longer, only cry or fuss when necessary, and ultimately allow you to get your much needed sleep.

There are many sleep training methods and philosophies. The Ferber method, which was made famous by Dr. Ferber, is the most commonly known method although it is no longer widely used or recommended. 

Also known as “crying it out,” the method encourages parents to ignore their children for a certain set period of time in order to allow them to calm themselves and teach themselves to go back to sleep. For many parents this concept is horrific. There is a reason, after all, why a parent’s natural instinct is to attend to a crying child.

Every baby is different, and not all babies (if any!) respond to the Ferber method. Talking to a baby sleep consultant to help map out a sleep pattern and schedule for your baby can help. In the meantime, we share a Mommy Mundo Mom’s experience.

— Rachel & Valentina –

Before my daughter was born her father and I interviewed night nurses. We were first-time parents living away from family, and we weren’t entirely sure how to handle a newborn infant. We chose a woman who was a registered pediatric nurse and had been serving as a night nurse or baby nurse for a few years.

Nine days after my daughter’s birth she asked me: “Can we start sleep training?”

I was confused. I’d never heard of sleep training before. She explained to me that she was going to put my daughter on a schedule, giving her a sense of time and cues for when she should sleep and/or stay asleep. 

She set up several cues for Valentina. First, the swaddling. Beginning 7:15pm or so, after Valentina’s last feed, she would tightly swaddle her with both arms in the swaddle. The second cue was the environment. After swaddling she would place Valentina in her toddler crib and turn off the lights, keeping the room itself quiet, although outside noises could be heard. She would stay with Valentina until she’d fallen asleep and then set her timer. 

Before Valentina would even wake, she would bring her to me for dream feeding, which is feeding the baby while they are asleep. This made it unnecessary for the baby to wake up to alert us of hunger. Then, gently—with my daughter still asleep—she would change her diaper, swaddle her back up, and then start again.

At 7:15am, she would remove one arm out of the swaddle. This was my daughter’s cue that it was early morning. The day would proceed as usual, except at 9am, I was instructed to take both arms out of the swaddle. The arms would stay out of the swaddle all day, even during nap time. This gave my daughter a sense of time: early morning, daytime, and night.

Soon the nurse was extending her timer longer and longer until it came a time that we were doing only one dream feed a night. I would still have to get up every two hours to pump because of the discomfort in my breasts, but the rest of the apartment was sleeping! By the time my daughter was 10-weeks old we would put her down at 7:30pm and she would wake up at 4:30am for one feeding and then go back to bed until 7:15am, which became her wake-up time. She was sleeping 10 hours straight at 10 weeks. It was amazing!

We followed the routine religiously, and to this day my daughter follows a long sleep schedule (more or less 8:00pm up to 6:30pm) and she still naps. I know every baby is different, but I do encourage all moms to try sleep training because it’s a good routine that can stay on through toddlerhood!

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Remember that the earlier you begin sleep training, the better. Much like Rachel’s story, try to set bedtime early, around 7pm. This is normal and standard for infants, toddlers, and young children. The longer they sleep, the more HCG is released, which helps them grow. Also, stick to your child’s schedule or routine as much as you can, which means let your child nap even if you are not home. An overtired child or too-rested child won’t sleep well. You need the perfect balance of both!