Children may develop pediatric insomnia, and parents are at greater risk of depression, stress, and poor health. When infants can’t sleep well, it’s distressing to both the baby and the parents. However, sleep training is effective and offers significant benefits to both babies and parents, with no evidence of negative long-term effects. Babies will eventually learn to sleep on their own.

Just as there’s no exact right age to begin sleep training, you also don’t have to sleep train. However, if your baby starts to fall asleep on their own at night (even if they wake up throughout the night), they’re most likely ready. It can be difficult to know when your baby is ready for sleep training. Nine months can be better for some babies since they no longer need to eat during the night at this age. Six months is generally agreed to be a good time to start sleep training, although you can begin as early as four months, or as late as nine months. At this age, they’re able to pick up skills like sleeping independently, and they haven’t gotten too used to you rocking them to sleep. Before then, they haven’t developed the circadian rhythms that will help them sleep through the night. When To Start Sleep Trainingīabies aren’t ready for sleep training until they’re 4-6 months old. There is no right way to sleep train, but staying consistent - and patient - are key to success. For others, particularly gentler methods that minimize crying, the process can take longer. With some sleep training methods, babies can be sleeping on their own within a matter of days. Little ones will still need their naps during the day, but tired parents (and especially moms still recovering from pregnancy insomnia) can enjoy more restful sleep. With more restful sleep, they’ll feel better during the day, as will their parents - which can improve the overall quality-of-life for the family. Once they’ve been sleep trained, babies can sleep 9-12 hours at night. There are several sleep training methods parents can use developed by pediatricians and sleep experts. If they wake up, they’ll learn to self-soothe and fall back asleep.

The goal of sleep training is for your baby to be comfortable sleeping for several hours through the night on their own. For sleepy parents who want to encourage their little ones to spend more of their nighttime sleep consistently asleep, sleep training may be the key. At this point, they’ll naturally want to sleep more at night and be awake more during the day. It takes babies around three to six months to develop their internal body clock, or circadian rhythm. The only problem is they tend to sleep in spurts, a combination of sleeping at night and napping during the day. For their first year of life, babies need approximately 9 to 12 hours of sleep per day, in addition to regular naps.

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