Quiz results: Taking a Break and the Excuse Me Drill

This are two closely relate techniques. In both of them, you stay with your child most of the time when they are falling asleep.

With either technique, your child gets comfortable with you leaving the room. And, sooner rather than later, they start falling asleep on their own.

In Taking a Break, you leave the room once for a short period then slowly increase the duration outside of the room each night.

In the Excuse Me Drill, you take many shorter breaks.

Either way, once they start falling asleep independently, sleeping through the night follows soon after.

Read about these techniques here.

Here are the other techniques I recommend in this age group:

Note that if your child doesn't need you to fall asleep but wakes up at night, medical issues (such as obstructive sleep apnea, eczema, asthma or constipation) can be to blame. Make sure you check in with your pediatrician before starting sleep training.

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Note that picking the correct sleep training technique is only a small part of your journey to sleep success. If you want to know what to do BEFORE sleep training, and where the technique fits in, check out my Sleep Training Starter Kit which is free to all (free) members.

Originally published March 2026. Last reviewed/updated by Dr. Craig Canapari, MD in March 2026