Bedtime fading is a way to add a little bit more “juice” to your sleep training plan.
I often find that parents who see me in clinic have tried and failed to sleep train their children. (Obviously, the ones who had an easy time don’t need an appointment). As I work with families to come up with plan to help their children fall asleep and stay asleep on their own, bedtime fading is one of the most useful tools that I use. In a nutshell, this involves moving their child’s bedtime later with the goal of having them be more sleepy at bedtime. In this video, I talk about how families can use bedtime fading to successfully sleep train their child. If you are interested, there is some interesting research that was published by Dr. Monique LeBourgeois which shows that children who have difficulty settling at night are frequently put to bed too early.
As stated in the video, the keys to successful bedtime fading include:
- Avoiding “sneaky sleep” in the later afternoon.
- Not allowing your child to sleep much later in the mornings, unless they are getting up at an uncomfortably early hour.
Have you tried moving your child’s bedtime with the goal of leading to a better night of sleep? How did that work for you?
Nedhila Imeri says
I have tried everything with my child I have tried not letting her nap at all during the day I have tried layering her nap if she falls asleep at 10 pm she will be up and hour later and won’t got to bed till 5 am if I let her fall asleep when she is tired she falls asleep anytime from 1:30 am to 3:30 am but most of the time it’s around 2:30 am this time is even with out any nap during day also she wakes up several times during the night anywhere from 4 to a dozen times a night she has never slept well since birth she is now 2 years old and I am tired all day due to lack of sleep she wakes up and cries and sometimes if I give her something to drink she calms down for a little but starts again 30 minutes later and it’s not like she will cry than sleep if I let her cry the crying gets more intense than it’s harder to calm her down I have tried moving the bed times and tried bathing and tried a lot if things I gave her melatonin and yes it helps her fall asleep but not stay asleep she will still wake up a dozen times during night
Craig Canapari MD says
It’s really too much to troubleshoot here but I would recommend you meet with your child’s pediatrician and review this issue in depth. Specifically, are there any medical problems which have been missed? Are there behavioral changes you can make which will be successful? That sounds really stressful. Good luck.
Cristi says
What do you suggest for a three year old who occasionally has night terrors and seems to have had them since infancy?
Craig Canapari MD says
Typically occasional night terrors, although disruptive, are benign. Avoiding sleep deprivation and treating medical problems which may disrupt sleep (such as sleep apnea or asthma) can be helpful. Always worth reviewing with your pediatrician.
Tanis says
I have a 1.5 year old boy who still sleeps with us in our bed… He won’t sleep in his crib… How do we make this transition so he doesn’t feel like he’s being punished for something… He started sleeping with us as an infant because of acid reflux and I’ve spent 6 mo in the last year in and out of hospital sick so we haven’t made the time to do any sleep training… Advice would be appreciated
Craig Canapari MD says
One way to start is to play with him in his crib during the day. I suspect right now he cries when you put him in his crib. Make his crib a fun place during the day.
The other issue is making sure his medical issues are addressed prior to embarking on sleep training.
Once you have done this try bedtime fading with the “camping out” method. Best of luck.
Christina says
This blog just may be the godsend I’ve been looking for! I have a 22 month old daughter who has never slept. I start her bedtime routine at 7:30 and by 8:30 she’s asleep…. However, I have to lay next to her in her toddler bed in order for her to fall asleep. We’ve tried the CIO method half a dozens times, and she will cry for 6-8 hours straight, without falling asleep on her own. It does not work for her.
Anyway, she falls asleep at 8:30 p.m. every night and sleeps for two hours, then wakes crying for me. I usually just bring her to bed with me because she will wake every 45-120 minutes all night long after that [and I don’t want to get up and go to her room that frequently], but after a few minutes of babbling, tossing and turning, or a drink of water, she’ll go back to sleep… until the dreaded 3 a.m. comes around. At this time she is up for a minimum of one hour, but usually up to three hours!! (We both work full time.)
Pediatricians have no solutions; I’ve seen 6 (it does not appear to be a medical issue though and she doesn’t watch TV). She takes a 2 hour nap at her montessori school, from about 12:30-2:30 every day.
Do you think a later bedtime would help? I fear she doesn’t get enough sleep as it is. You mentioned 12-14 hours are needed… she gets probably 9 including her nap. And it’s a very restless sleep. Please tell what is this “camping out” method you mentioned in the comment above? Could she have toddler insomnia? Thanks in advance!
Craig Canapari MD says
1. I do think that moving bedtime to 8:30 may help as she is falling asleep then.
2. Camping out may be a good fit for your family. Here’s more on how to try the “camping out” method.
https://drcraigcanapari.com/2014/08/25/camping-out-sleep-training/
Nicola says
Our son is 16 months old and has always been nursed to sleep (rocking worked for a limited period, but that aside he has resisted all other methods of trying to get him to sleep, hence we find ourselves in this situation now). He falls asleep during nursing around 8.30pm each night, following a routine of bath, teeth, pjs etc. Bedtime fading sounds like a great method, but I wondered if it can work with a baby who has always nursed to sleep, and if so how this can be done. I don’t intend to stop nursing yet, I would just like to teach my son to go to sleep without it (particularly during the numerous night time wake ups!). Specifically, if we are to try a faded bedtime, I am unsure when we should nurse our son e.g., should I start the bedtime routine of bath, followed by massage/pjs and nursing and then wake my son up if he falls asleep during nursing so that he goes into the cot awake? I’m slightly confused as to how best to do it. Thanks very much for this helpful post.
Craig Canapari MD says
Bedtime fading may help but you need to break the association with nursing. I highly recommend nursing him at the beginning of his routine, preferably outside of his room, then (if possible), having another caregiver put him to bed as he will be looking for the breast if you are there. Best of luck.
Nicola says
I will give it a try!! Thanks very much for your help.
Alex says
Following your excellent advice on this blog, I’ve nailed down a pretty good routine with my 17 month old son. Currently fading his bedtime so he falls asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow. Previously, he had a ton of inappropriate sleep onset associations.
My question: how long do you think it will take for this method to have an effect and lessen his night-time waking? I am only on day 2 of the faded bedtime (and day 2 of falling asleep with no distracting nightlight/heavy parental support)! His routine has been locked in for a few weeks, however.
Thank you for the wonderful, evidence-based advice.
-Alex
drcraigc says
Thanks for your kind words. Typically, the awakenings should start to improve in a few days and resolve in a few weeks. If they persist after that I would revisit this issue with your pediatrician to look for a medical cause. Good luck!
Alex says
Many thanks!
Lara says
My 3 year old son has a nightly bedtime routine. He doesn’t sleep all day and bath time starts at 6pm. My husband baths him. I then take him to his bedroom pjs on, story( he chooses 3 books) then a song then it’s sleep time. Sometimes he falls asleep sometimes he is still awake when I leave his room. So far so good. During the night he waged up for several hours, talking thrashing about etc how can we overcome this problem,what is causing him to wake up? And stay awake. He usually wakes up at 6ish. Lara
drcraigc says
Work on him falling consistently on his own and consider a later bedtime. Have him evaluated by his pediatrician to make sure that there is not a medical issue waking him up.
Hana says
I have a 2 year old that falls asleep every night in my bed and with a bottle, she wakes up frequently during the night for another bottle to fall asleep, a terrible habbit i know? how do i get rid of the bottle?
drcraigc says
You need to a) stop giving her a bottle last thing before falling asleep b) slowly reduce the of milk she receives during the night (1oz/night). Good luck
Ekaterini says
My 3 yr old daughter is very attached to her pacifier and won’t give it up for bedtime.
I also realized, we need to work on bedtime fading. After moving into a new house in a new country I sat in the hallway until she fell asleep cause it was a new environment and room etc.
We are somewhat working on getting rid of the pacifier, but now I am wondering if it is better to get rid of the pacifier first and then work on bedtime fading OR the other way round?
drcraigc says
I think trying both together can work great. When we had our kids give up the pacifier, we also packaged them up and said we were giving them to the babies that needed them, and each child got a small “big boy gift” the next day.
Marwa says
My baby was sleeping the night very well since he was a month old until 2 months and a half, he would sleep from 11am – 5/6am straight or with awakening once . At 3 months, I moved his bed time routine (earlier that he would be asleep by 8Pm and everything changed. He started waking up 3 times a night, crying hysterically that it is impossible to not pick him and sooth him up. My son is 4 months and a half now and wakes up 3 times from 8pm – 7am however he would grunt and make noises every now and then to get his pacifier back into his mouth. I keep him in a small crib with me in the room, usually picking him up for a minute or 2 to sooth him and dropping him back works, but when will this decrease? Not sure if I am doing something wrong? moreover, for the past 2 days he has been breaking out his swaddle and moving a lot – seems more like light sleep. Any advice please.
Craig Canapari says
He’s still pretty young to expect a full night of sleep. I think your short bouts of soothing seem age appropriate. As for the swaddle– when they start breaking out, you can either try some of the swaddling blankets on the market like the Miracle Blanket, or accept that your son is a budding Houdini. My older son was swaddled until 5 months of age; the younger was busting out by a month of age. Good luck.
Ashley says
Thank you for the video, I’m thinking this might be the solution I’m looking for. I started sleep training my daughter a little over a month ago, when she was nearing 5 months. I hired a sleep consultant to help for the first two weeks. We camped out in the room for the first 10 nights, and began leaving her alone in the room on night 11 (with 10 minute checks). It has now been over a month since we began, and our daughter is still crying for lengthy periods of time at bedtime (25 minutes is pretty average). Naps are better, she usually settles within about 10 minutes (usually crying). Awake periods during the day are around 2 hours, but prior to bedtime it is usually 2.5 hours. Would you suggest trying 3 hours at bedtime? We don’t yet have a set bedtime, it depends on the time of her last nap. This means I put her to bed anytime between 6 and 8 usually. I imagine it will be challenging to get her last feed in if she’s been awake for 3 hours though. She used to nurse to sleep and still tries to fall asleep at the breast during her last feed of the day (we read a book and sing after the last feed). We haven’t had any issues with night wakings, she usually sleeps through the night (until 6 to 7 am) or sometimes wakes for one feed. Thank you for any insight, I’m hoping I can fix the crying with better timing. I’m not sure how much longer I’ll continue with sleep training otherwise, over a month of intense crying at bedtime is definitely hard on me as a mom!
Craig Canapari says
Hi Ashley. I do think a later bedtime might be useful for you. Additionally having a consistent bedtime can be quite helpful. Perhaps you could start with this consistent 7:30 bedtime and see where that gets you? Best of luck.
Gina says
My husband and I started sleep training my daughter at 6 months by kissing her, wishing her good night sleep and putting her in her crib at 8:00 pm. She would self sooth, fall asleep at 9:00 and would not wake up until 7:00 am. So easy!!! She is now 18 months old and sometimes will sneak into my son’s room and take her nap on his toddler bed before I offer her to nap. She now has her own toddler bed and it’s been hello “sleep deprive”! She refuses to lay in her bed even if we sit next to her; therefore, my husband rocks her to sleep and after an hour of rocking her puts her in her bed. She wakes up crying every two hours but does not leave the room. One of us goes to her room and lay in her bed till she falls a sleep. I finally had it last night at 2:00 am. I went to her room when she woke up and said to get back in bed and go to sleep. I walked out leaving her door and my door cracked open. She cried for 2 minutes then she stopped and after 30 minutes I found her a sleep on the floor by my door. What should I change to help her?
Craig Canapari says
Out of curiosity, why did you switch out of a crib at 18 months? Do you think she might prefer going back to it?
Gina says
We thought she was ready to switch since she would sneak into her brother’s room for nap time and every night when the bed time timer would go off. We are a military family ready to move to our next station of duty; so we decided to buy her toddler bed (again thinking she was ready) and leave behind her nursery crib set.
I don’t think she would want to go back to her crib. She does fine staying there for nap time but has a hard time at bed time. We continue using her nightlight and white noise at night just like when she used the crib. It makes me wonder if she is treating bed time like nap time, since nap is two hours.
Erin says
My 11-month old has no problem going to bed. We put her down awake (me or my husband) at about 7pm. But she wakes up every 2 hours all night long. We have tried just letting her cry, but it hasn’t worked so far. I end up nursing her but she seems to be just snacking not hungry. Should I stop all night feelings and let her cry? How many days will she cry with each waking? She screams standing up for 30-60 minutes at every waking and we have s small house.
Craig Canapari says
Have you tried a later bedtime? If she is up for two hours every night it suggests her sleep period is too long.
Siobhan Greiner says
Hello – We started sleep training our 4 month old using the method laid out in The Sleepeasy Solution book (basically Ferber – controlled crying with checks at 5, 10, 15 minute intervals) 12 days ago. We have been doing the sleep training for both naps and overnight sleep. She is not night weaned, so I was doing a dream feed once a night. The first night she cried for about half an hour off and on. Her naps she would cry about 20 minutes. After the first few days, that went down to about 15-20 minutes for nighttime, and 5-10 minutes of crying for naps. This stayed the same until about day 9. Is this normal? Should the crying have gotten even shorter or gone away completely by then? It would usually be off and on with some whining mixed in and not sobbing. Then on day 9, my sister, who is going to move in with us to nanny, moved in and she started experiencing separation anxiety – crying when I would get out of her sight or in another room, etc. It’s probably worth noting that I saw this separation anxiety begin even before we started sleep training – she would cry when other strangers would hold her. But I didn’t think too much of it at the time until my sister moved in. She also started crying harder and longer when we would put her down for overnight sleep and also naps. It would get up to 45 minutes or so, and yesterday (day 11?), I picked her up two of these times because I felt she was crying too hard and for too long which was not normal for her. Today she seems better, but I am wondering – what should I do at this point? Do I stay the course? Does the fact that she was still crying between 5 – 20 minutes at every sleep time at day 9 even before my sister moved in mean that sleep training didn’t work for us? Was she too young? (The Sleepeasy book stated that 4 month olds had the ability to self soothe and were therefore ready for sleep training). My reason for sleep training her so early was because I also have a 2 year old who is at home during the day, and every time I would try to put the baby down for a nap, I would have to rock, nurse, etc. etc. for upwards of 30 minutes, and I would need to have my 2 year old in another room while I did so (therefore pretty much neglecting her and putting her in front of the tv for much of the day since the baby is still taking 4 naps). The baby would also cry while I was rocking her etc. because she was tired, and the 2 year old would inevitably barge into the room when she felt she had waited enough and get the baby so riled up that it would be like starting all over again. At nighttime, I am alone putting both children to bed as my husband works late, so again, it was a struggle to get them both to bed and both were overtired as a result – they would keep each other from sleeping when I had them both together in the same room and the 2 year old would barge into the babys room if I tried to separate them. I feel between a rock and a hard place, because if I give up sleep training, the alternative wasn’t working either. But I don’t want to do anything that is cruel or developmentally inappropriate to my 4 month old – HELP!?!
Craig Canapari says
I’m not that familiar with the Sleepeasy solution per se but I would recommend staying the course as you have already invested a fair amount of time and stress into this. I think you are actually doing fine.
Amanda says
Hi Dr. Canapari,
2 quick questions, I hope:
1) My healthy, happy 6mo daughter is about 7 days into sleep training. She does pretty great at nap times (sometimes 10-15 minutes of fussing, sometimes none) and at night she falls asleep within minutes and with no crying. However- she wakes up about 45 minutes later and it’s full blast. Her bed time was 6:30, I moved it to 7:00 (after reading this post) and she’s very tired at that point. After that she’s good until about 2am, but I think she’s going to get the hang of it. Should I push her to 7:30? Or is there another issue?
2.) I feel that my continued presence, specifically during the bedtime fit, makes things worse. She reaches up for me and seems to wail more and for longer. Is it harsh or ineffective if I only check on her every 30 minutes and then leave the room?
Thank you!
Amanda
Thanks for your help!
Amanda
Craig Canapari says
1. Stay the course for a few more days then see if 7:15 or 7:30 is helpful.
2. You are doing great! It is OK for you to check every 30 minutes. Here is a dirty little secret: checks are for the parents and not the kids. Good luck.
Esther Bitar says
My 2.5 month old was sleeping from 10-5 until about 3.5 months. After this she started going through a sleep regression waking up a few times a night. At first I use to feed her every time she would wake, but now I only feed her around her 3 am wake up time and she usually sleeps until 7-7:30 am. She has never been a good napper. She usually takes about 3, 30 min naps a day, with the last one being around 4-5 o’clock. I tried to keep her bedtime at a later time hoping she would sleep through the night, but the fact that she doesn’t nap well, makes her extremely tired come 6:30. I usually start her bedtime routine around 7, but she doesn’t fall asleep until 8-9 o’clock. I do feel like she was sleeping better with the 10pm bedtime, but if she shouldn’t nap past 4, but is exhausted by 6pm, how do you manage to have a later bedtime?
Craig Canapari says
You could try consolidating the naps into two a day, with the first 2 hours after waking and the second after lunch time. I suspect things will improve for you in a month or so. As always, check with your pediatrician to see if there is anything else that you might be missing.
Abby says
My 9 month old baby boy has suddenly started waking up every 1-2 hours at night, and won’t stop crying unless breastfed or held. He has always had early bedtime, at 6pm , and goes down drowsy at bedtime and for naps. If this is a sleep regression, do I offer comfort numerous times throughout the night or have him cry it out. Is his bedtime too early? I put him down based on his cues and he goes to bed rather easily and fear pushing bedtime later he will be overtired and fussy.
Craig Canapari says
It could certainly be a regression, in which case it should run its’ course. I would avoid reintroducing feeds if you can.
Chelsea says
Thank You so much for posting these videos! I feel like I may finally get the answers we need! I have 2 year old daughter who has always had problems sleeping. Her father works second shift and in order to spend time with him we have a much later schedule than most. He works 2p-11. Lately she has been staying awake up until 4:30AM and waking up around noon. We would like to move her sleep time up to around 1 or 2 and wake up around 11-12. Do you think this is possible? Her pedi recently started her on 3mg of melatonin last night and she seemed to have more energy after her dose. Any suggestions?
Craig Canapari says
Hi Chelsea. This is pretty complicated and probably beyond my abilities to address here. I would review this with her pediatrician You could try moving her schedule earlier by 10-15 minutes a day.
Sherry says
Hello. My daughter is almost 9 months and is sleeping with us in the same bed. She was in her own crib until she was about 5 months, then she started waking up at nights and crying out loud looking for pacifier. We would get up couple of times a night and soothe her with a paci. We hired a nanny at 6 months and the nanny would take naps with her and lay next to her during the day. I think my baby got used to it. Now at 9 months she will not take naps or sleep by herself. I have to sleep right next to her whenever she wants. She will wake up if I move her to her own crib. How do I break the habit and start sleep training. My husband refuses to do the Cry out method and I’ve heard of the dangers of how it could affect the mental developments of the babies and how they learn not to trust the world because their needs aren’t being met. She’s also used to having 7 ounce bottle right before she falls sleep. She will stand up and cry in her crib if I don’t pick her up right away. Any suggestions??
Craig Canapari says
A couple of thoughts. There’s no evidence that sleep training hurts your child. Secondly, I don’t really recommend bedsharing with infants for safety reasons (which admittedly are less significant after six weeks of age). You could check out this advice on stopping cosleeping. Best of luck.
Cathy says
Hi Dr. Canapari,
Ever since our son (now 3 1/2) was weaned off the pacifier (in February), we have been struggling with bedtime.
We have spent time holding his hand while he falls asleep and got down to being able to leave after 5 minutes of hand holding. We did backslide into staying in the room until he fell asleep. We think it has been since we changed daycares and his separation anxiety has really ramped up.
We have already tried moving bedtime later. I moved it even later and now we start with relaxing stories at 8:30 and lights out at 9:00. That’s when we start the “Excuse Me” drill. We have had some small successes, like fewer night time awakenings and not waking at 5 am. However, he doesn’t seem to buy my excuses for leaving. He callsout for me a few times. If I ignore him it gets worse. Also, he has left the room to come find me on one occasion. I gently put him back and said I’ll come check on you when I’ve finished.
He takes until 9:45 almost every time we do this. Is this normal to take some time to work? Should I try putting him to bed even later?
Thanks for your great site and advice!
Craig Canapari says
I think a later bedtime may help a bit. Alternatively, you could continue the current drill but more frequent checks in the beginning– as in every 20-30 seconds to start.
Cathy says
Thank you for your help!
Rachael says
Dear Dr. Canapari,
I’m so glad I found this blog. I’ve completely started to lose my mind with my 29-month-old. Just over four months ago, on the day we came home from the hospital with his newborn brother, he figured out how to jump out of his crib. We immediately bought a toddler bed and installed a gate at his door threshold. Since then, he hasn’t napped, even when I drive him around for an hour. At night, we have about an hour-long bedtime ritual including tub, milk, books, toothbrushing, and several songs. Before the time change, his bedtime was around 6:30pm and wake up around 6am. Now, after the time change, we put him in bed around 5:30pm (though he typically doesn’t fall asleep until 6:30pm), sometimes 7:30pm, but he wakes up multiple times per night asking for a ‘hug’, then ‘permanently’ wakes up around 4:55am, cranky and tired. He then screams for me at his gate. I typically put him back in bed about ten times before allowing him out at 6am. This is when his traffic light alarm clock goes ‘green’. I’ve also tried lying in bed with him to try to get him back to sleep, but he just kicks and squirms. Treat negotiations also have proven ineffective. I tried to put him to bed at 5pm tonight because he was a crying mess, but he didn’t fall asleep until 6:30pm. With his incredible energy and strong will, he is absolutely exhausted by the afternoon and his behavior declines (not that I blame him!). I keep hoping that he will just catch up on sleep and his behavior will improve.
Do you have any advice? Are some kids’ bodies just built to wake at a certain time no matter when they go to bed? I was thinking about talking to the pediatrician about a dose of melatonin for a couple days.
Thank you so much for your advice.
Sincerely,
Rachael
Craig Canapari says
Hi Rachael. That sounds like the perfect storm of bad sleep (new baby brother, switch to toddler bed, time change). I would consider moving his bedtime to the time he is actually falling asleep, for a start. I suspect things will get better in a few weeks. See my FAQ for more information.
Elise says
Hello Dr Canapari, Thank you for your site!
My son is 2year+3 mo and has always been a very alert kid– from the moment he hit the air. We have routinely been on the low end or below the “normal sleep curve” by about 2 hours since birth. We don’t seem to see any behavioral issues like crankiness or irritability with his current schedule (total sleep 10-11h/24h day).
Right now he takes a 1.5-2h nap (1-3pm usually at preschool) and will not “be sleepy” until 6.5-7hrs after he wakes from this nap. This is fairly routine with exceptions for sickness or teething. So this means his actual sleeptime is usually around 930-10, even though we start our routine around 830. We notice if we try to put him down earlier he will just fight it until that magical 7h mark and then he’ll drop off. We have been using the “camp out” method for awhile and have had a lot of success at leaving the room without helping him sleep but not before the 7h mark.
He will sleep 8.5-9.5 hours most nights without waking and then is up and cheerful in the morning around 630-730. My question is if we should try to limit his naptime to 1 hour in order to encourage an earlier bedtime– the late bedtime is challenging for us as working parents. I don’t have strong hopes he will suddenly start sleeping 12-14h in a day as he’s just not that kid. We are also open to trying some low dose melatonin if it might help shift his sleep point if he would stay asleep until 7. But I wonder if he will just adjust and be up at 5!
**We don’t do any sugar and limit screen time already**
Craig Canapari says
Sounds like he is doing well overall. I’d review his schedule with his pediatrician and see what he or she thinks.
Victoria says
Hello,
Your sleep fading advice worked like a charm for us and our 9-month old during a regression. He was always a pretty great bedtime baby until 6 months when he suddenly started refusing bedtime, despite self soothing for months leading up to it. We resorted to the sleep crutches (nursing) we’d given up months before and finally tried sleep training, but it was just a cry fest since he already knew how to self soothe, but seemed to be electing not to do it. Although he would fall asleep eventually, it would take ages and he would wake upset again frequently throughout the night (unusual for him). We endured this on and off for 2-3 months, but a half hour later bedtime (asleep by 7 or 7:10) solved all of our issues in one night! I hadn’t thought to try that because his nighttime theatrics made him so tired by 6:30pm that he seemed way too tired to stay up any later. We forced him to do it anyway and voila! Our wonderful bedtime baby was back and has been for the last month. I am glad That I stumbled upon this page! It seems so simple in retrospect, but it really wasn’t the obvious solution at the time. Just wanted to say thanks for a great video!
Craig Canapari says
Thanks so much! I am tickled pink by your kind words and your success!
Najin says
Is bedtime fading appropriate for a 6-month-old? I’ve been putting down my son based on wake times, but is a set bedtime a better option? Currently he usually falls asleep on his own fine but then wakes 2-3 hours later and then about every 3-4 hours after that. Things seem to be worst on days he’s had a late nap – I wake him if it goes past 5:00-ish.
Craig Canapari says
It may help. And I would also not let him sleep past 4 if it is causing bedtime issues.
Raj says
First of all, your website is very very informative. I just found it while google-ing about the same issue; sleep training. Thank you very much for all the things you do!
Our daughter is 19 months old. She used to fall asleep by herself and also throughout the night (9pm – 7am) until last month. We went for a month long vacation and now she wants us to either rock or sleep with her until she falls asleep. She wakes up EXACTLY after 6-6:30 hrs of sleep (e..g sleep at 9pm and wake up at 3-3:30am).
She wants us to be there (‘inappropriate association’ as per what I read on your blog). But even if we rock or sleep with her, she doesn’t fall asleep until around 5am. We give her water on the days she demands after waking up.
Both of us work full time and we need kids to wake up at 6:45 in order for all of us to be out the door on time. This is definitely making her tired in the daycare where she takes nap between 12:30-2ish
Can you please suggest what I can do for her to go back to her routine and sleep through the night?
Craig Canapari says
Hi Raj. Thanks so much for your kinds words. I’m not sure there is a quick fix here. I’d recommend that you find a sleep physician nearby.