They conclude that sleep training methods that involve crying aren't necessary in the longer term.Īs with all sleep training methods, it's best to start gentle sleep training when your baby is physically and emotionally ready to sleep through the night, usually between 4 and 6 months old. They point out that while research suggests that extinction methods may result in better sleep in the short-term, all babies have similar sleep patterns at around 1 year of age regardless of the sleep training method their parents used. Gentle sleep training advocates believe that it's natural for babies to want to be close to their parents, and that cry it out (also called extinction sleep training) doesn't teach babies to self-soothe as advertised. Those who favor a no-tears approach believe that bedtime offers an opportunity to connect with your child by developing quiet, cozy nighttime rituals and by quickly responding to your baby's requests for food and comfort. There are several books on no cry sleep training, including Elizabeth Pantley's No-Cry Sleep Solution, Tracy Hogg's The Baby Whisperer, and Kim West's The Sleep Lady's Good Night Sleep Tight. There are three main approaches: The chair method, the pick up put down method, and scheduled awakenings.

Enter gentle sleep training, also called no cry sleep training. If you don't like the idea of leaving your baby to cry alone – or you've tried cry it out (CIO) or similar methods and they didn't work for you – you may want to consider a more gradual approach that involves fewer tears.

Sleep no more explained