As a pediatric sleep coach, I define sleep training as anything a parent does to help their child sleep better at night or for naps. It often includes working to get the baby to sleep without being held or fed. There are different types of sleep training methods, and within each type there can be more than one variation. In my experience as a sleep coach I have seen that the more gentle the method, the longer the training time can be. This is an important aspect to consider when deciding which sleep training method to use. For the first three years of my son's life, I rarely slept through the night because he almost never did. Not only was it a very tiring time in my life, it was also very confusing. I was reading many different books on how to get him to sleep and they all seemed to suggest different ways to achieve this. There were so many different options out there, but how was I supposed to know what would actually work? Confusion over which sleep training method to use is something I often hear from parents, who may also have received advice and information from many different sources. Sleep Basics Did you know that none of us sleep through the night without waking up? We all have partial awakenings as we go through sleep cycles.[1] The basic idea of ​​sleep training methods is that if children don't know how to fall asleep at bedtime, they won't know how to get back to sleep when they go through these partial awakenings during the night.[2] It's also important to note that whatever sleep training method you use, you'll also want to be sure that your child is sleeping at times that are appropriate for their age[3] and that there are no underlying medical conditions that could be affecting their sleep. ...... half of the paper ...... in the room with your child, but your child seems to be very angry with you because you don't pick him up, you can change your method. In general, I've found that it's easier to start with a gentler method and then, if that doesn't work, move to a slightly less gentle method. Works Cited1. WebMD: Stages of Sleep, 20122. Nationwide Children's Hospital - Neurosciences Center: Sleep in Infants (2-12 Months), 20033. "Cry It Out (CIO) is a broad phrase that refers to any method of training an infant to night sleep which involves allowing a baby to cry for a given period of time Although often associated with Dr. Richard Ferber, Ferber never used the term in his book, Solve Baby's Sleep Problems your child" About.com Baby's First Year: Cry It Out., 20144. The New York Times-Health: To Get Your Baby to Sleep, Sticking to a Schedule is What Matters , 2006