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Even at a very young age your baby can learn to depend on you (or others) to help her go to sleep. Once dependant on this help, this then becomes what is commonly referred to as a sleep association. It other words, it's what she's learned to associate with falling to sleep.
A sleep association can be any number of things a parent does, intentionally or unintentionally, to assist a baby or child to go to sleep. Examples include...
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Feeding to sleep; either breast or bottle
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Cuddling her; in arms or a sling
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Patting
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Stroking
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Rocking; in a crib, swing or pram
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A pacifier
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Sleeping with parents
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Sitting or lying with her as she falls asleep (this may be on the couch)
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Driving in a car
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and more......
There's nothing wrong with helping your baby or child go to sleep and if you're happy to continue to provide this help, there's no need to change a thing.
However... if you find she wakes as soon as you place her in her crib or after brief naps or she wakes frequently during the night and cries or calls out to you (or comes to your bed), these may be signs that a sleep association is affecting her sleep. (There can also be other reasons for this behavior).
All humans sleep in cycles (more like a wave really), where we go from awake, to light sleep, to deep sleep, to light sleep, stir or wake briefly before falling back into the next sleep cycle. A sleep cycle for a baby lasts approx 30 minutes to an hour, for a child approx 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.
* Young babies often need to sleep through 2 or 3 sleep cycles during a daytime nap to feel well rested. However, times can vary depending on the time of day or night.
It's very normal for babies and children (and adults) to wake naturally between sleep cycles or they can easily be woken by sudden noises or movement during a light sleep phase. If a child has learned to depend on help to fall asleep, when she wakes between sleep cycles, she will cry* or call out for you to provide the help she needs in order to go to go back to sleep.
*This crying is often interpreted as hunger, pain or boredom.
This disruption to her sleep is likely to result in her missing vital sleep. An overtired baby or child can experience great difficultly falling asleep, to the point where she appears to "fight" going to sleep.
Sleep deprivation is one reason a baby can display "colicky" behavior. A sleep deprived child is more likely to misbehave.
The secret to improving your baby or child's sleep behavior could lie in encouraging her to learn to settle to sleep without your help. That way, she will be able to resettle to sleep unaided when she stirs or wakes between sleep cycles. This would mean she's more likely to get the sleep she needs, without disturbing your sleep.
HOW WE CAN HELP you to encourage your child to establish healthy sleep habits.
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