I often see posts on social media from people claiming that night wake ups are normal (hey no arguments from me, we all know humans sleep in cycles at night and at the end of these cycles, we wake and go back to sleep... just look at your fit bit app to see how much you sleep at night).

They claim that if night babies weren’t meant to wake at night, they wouldn’t and therefore there is no need for sleep training..... um.....

Sleep training isn’t about changing biologically normal sleep patterns.... once again for those who didn’t hear me. Sleep training isn’t about changing biologically normal sleep patterns.

I can’t sleep train myself to not have sleep cycles, and I can’t sleep train your baby to not wake at night.

What I can do, is help you with sleep training to teach your baby or toddler to settle themselves back to sleep at the end of those sleep cycles.

I can also help you to work with their natural circadian rhythm to ensure that their day sleep supports the best possible night sleep, so as few wake ups and as maximum deep restorative sleep as possible. 

Yes wake ups are normal.....no waking excessively at night, consistently.......or taking long periods of time to get back to sleep several times a night consistently long term, is not restorative sleep.

Waking at night is normal, and there is a big list of reasons why your child might wake at night.

We can rule out 80% of those things with good consistent routine, positive sleep associations and good sleep hygiene. The ability to self settle back to sleep is the icing on the cake for the remaining 20% of those wake ups.

Yes your baby woke because they are going through a developmental leap and learning to walk, BUT they can self settle back to sleep quickly and successfully.

Yes your baby woke because the cat meowed too loudly...but your baby can go back to sleep because they have the ability to self settle.

Remember if your baby wakes at night, often their only need at that point is the need for sleep, don’t feel like you are bad parent if your baby can put themselves back to sleep, take the pressure off yourself, you’re doing a great job, and teaching our baby to self settle isn’t ignoring their night time needs.