You’ve likely heard or read about laying your baby in their crib “drowsy but awake”.
In certain situations, yes, this can be helpful. But in most cases, putting your baby to bed drowsy actually causes more wake-ups, more crying, and less sleep for everyone in the family.
The only time putting your baby to bed drowsy may be helpful is with a newborn, but even so, only for some sleep situations. When I work with a newborn, the goal is to gradually ease them into developing their own sleep skills. And so, yes, sometimes that does mean putting them to bed drowsy, but this is only short-term.
For any baby past the newborn stage, putting them to bed drowsy can result in:
- Waking up the minute they’re laid in the crib
- Short naps
- Waking up 20-45 minutes after bedtime
- Night wakings
To explain why this happens, we need to take a look at the sleep cycle. From approximately 4 months of age and beyond, there are 5 stages in a sleep cycle:
- Stage 1 – Very light sleep. This is the dozing off stage and it typically lasts 1-5 minutes.
- Stage 2 – Still light sleep, but you’re less likely to be awakened.
- Stages 3 & 4 – Deep sleep. This is very restorative sleep.
- Stage 5 – REM Sleep. This is very active sleep and it’s where we do most of our dreaming.
When we put our babies to sleep “drowsy but awake”, they’re already in Stage 1, or maybe even Stage 2, of their sleep cycle. Now one of two things will happen:
1) When you go to lay your baby down in their crib, they’re going to wake up because, after all, they’re still in very slight sleep. They’re likely going to cry and it’s going to be a lot harder to get them back to sleep. And the reason why is that they’ve already had a little catnap in your arms. Their sleep pressure has lowered just enough that they’re tired but not tired enough.
2) Or maybe, just maybe, you lay your baby down in their crib and they stay asleep. But then they wake up 20-45 minutes later. The reason why this happens is because you have helped them fall asleep and now they’re awake, looking for whatever it was that got them to sleep in the first place – usually it’s rocking, feeding, or a pacifier.
Obviously neither one of these scenarios is going to give you or your baby the sleep you need.
So, what do I suggest you do?
Put your baby to sleep AWAKE. Not “drowsy but awake” – AWAKE AWAKE.
Laying your baby in their crib awake is the key to getting them falling asleep, sleeping through the night, and taking restful naps too.
Do you need a step-by-step plan for what to do once you lay your baby in their crib awake? Book your free, no obligation call here.