As a pediatric sleep coach, I define sleep training as anything a parent does to help their child sleep better during the night or during naps. This often involves working on getting a child to sleep without being held or fed. There are several different types of sleep training methods, and within each type there may be more than one variation. In my experience as a sleep coach, I have found that the gentler the method, the longer the training can take. This is an important consideration 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, but it was also very confusing. I was reading a lot of different books on how to put him to sleep and they all seemed to suggest different ways to achieve this goal. There were so many different options, but how did you know what would actually work? Confusion over which sleep training method to use is something I hear often 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 experience partial awakenings when we change 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 experience these partial awakenings during the night.[ 2] It is also important to note that whatever sleep training method you use, you will also need to ensure that your child will sleep at times appropriate for their age[3] and that there are no conditions underlying medical condition that could affect their sleep. ...... middle of paper ...... ng in the room with your child, but your child seems very angry with you for not picking him up, you can change your method. In general, I've found it's easier to start with a gentler method, and then if that doesn't work, switch 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 general term that refers to any method of training a child sleep at night which involves allowing a baby to cry for a set amount of time. Although often associated with Dr. Richard Ferber, Ferber never used the term in his book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems." , 20144. The New York Times-Health: To get your baby to sleep, what matters is sticking to a plan. , 2006