How Sleep Training Sets Your Baby Up for Success

The positive benefits of sleep training go far beyond bedtime, for both your baby and you.

Sleep training teaches your baby to adopt healthy sleep habits, so they fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and put themselves back to sleep if they wake up during the night. Getting good, uninterrupted sleep is crucial for a baby’s development, and it also impacts the family’s overall wellbeing.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

• Sleep Training Benefits
• Naps Go Far, Too
• How Sleep Training Helps You

Multiple studies from a range of sources show that babies who sleep well, nap regularly, and have early bedtimes are better emotionally adjusted, do better in school, and have reduced risk for health problems down the road. Meanwhile, parents with well-rested babies who have early bedtimes are also happier, healthier, and have more free time. Here’s a brief rundown of the science of your baby’s sleep and how sleep training effectively and safely guides it.

Here we discuss some of the ways sleep training sets your baby up for success.

To get step-by-step guidance on everything sleep training, download the Smart Sleep Coach by Pampers™. Co-developed with pediatricians, this easy-to-use app from Pampers is a game changer when it comes to solving your baby’s sleep. Get started today by taking this free sleep assessment.

Sleep Training Benefits:

In the short-term, sleep training your baby will help them:

• Fall asleep faster: Sleep training teaches your baby to anticipate and lean into sleep, meaning they fall asleep faster at night.
• Wake up less at night: Sleep training teaches your baby to be a strong independent sleeper, so they can put themselves back to sleep if and when they wake at night.

• Sleep longer: Sleep training includes getting your baby on a biologically and developmentally appropriate schedule which will help them sleep longer overall.

In the long-term, sleep training helps your baby sleep more, which has the following benefits:

• Improved learning skills: The Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health published a study finding students who had consistent bedtimes performed better in school, while similar research from The Japanese Society of Child Neurology found that later bedtimes in 18-month-olds led to poorer results on cognitive development.
• Emotional and Linguistic Improvement: A study published in Sleep Medicine Reviews, suggests that the routine aspect of sleep training has benefits, as well: “…Bedtime routine(s) can contribute to an array of positive developmental outcomes beyond improved sleep, inclusive of language development, literacy, child emotional and behavioral regulation, parent–child attachment, and family functioning, among other outcomes.”

• Improve mood: A study in Early Human Development found that well-rested babies are more approachable and adaptable to new situations than babies that don’t get enough rest - a fact many of us parents can confirm based on our own empirical evidence!
• Reduced Obesity: Getting enough sleep as a baby and toddler is shown to reduce the likeliness of obesity in children. One study, by the journal SLEEP concluded, “Greater increases in nighttime sleep duration and more consolidation of nighttime sleep were associated with lower odds of being overweight from 1 to 6 months.”
• Marishka Brown, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, suggested that the patterns created in those six months may be predictive for the rest of their lives: “What is particularly interesting about this research is that the sleep-obesity association we see across the lifespan appears in infancy and may be predictive of future health outcomes.”

Naps Go Far, Too

Naps are essential components to your baby’s sleep cycle and also have long-term benefits, improving:

• Memory Consolidation: Naps provide additional NREM sleep, which develops your baby’s memory consolidation. Read more about NREM and other sleep patterns here.
• Quicker Locomotor Problem Solving, such as solving how to crawl through a tunnel.
• Flexible Cognition: Such as recognizing two identical but different-colored puppets.

How Sleep Training Helps You

Sleep Training has tremendous benefits for parents and caretakers, too

More Sleep: Since your baby falls asleep faster and stays asleep longer – and because sleep coached babies wake less at night – you also benefit from more sleep – and what parents can say no to that.

Better Mood: As with babies, and all humans, being tired or not well rested can put you on edge. With more rest, your mood will improve, too. And that’s not just based on our experience – a Canadian study showed less depression in mothers who sleep coached their babies.

More Chill Time: When your baby sleeps more, you also have more time. Again, no study needed to explain why that’s a benefit.

Better Relationships: Whether with your romantic partners or friends, being better rested, in a better mood, and with less stress you can reconnect with people who are important to you.

Safer: Drowsiness can lead to clumsiness or slower reflexes. According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data, drowsy driving contributes to about 83,000 car collisions each year and about 900 fatalities. That said, when you're better rested, you’re a safer, more alert parent.

Be a Better Parent: Since sleep Training helps you be more rested and happier, you’ll also be a more patient, attentive, and enthusiastic parent for your little one. Everybody wins!

When you’re ready to start your sleep training journey, download The Smart Sleep Coach by Pampers™. It features a proprietary algorithm that will automatically adjust your baby’s schedule every time you track a sleep and offers personalized sleep training approaches designed uniquely for your baby.