Your FAQs About Sleep: Answered by A Certified Sleep Consultant
I absolutely love doing free question Friday but it’s impossible to keep up with it every week (which is why I moved it to every other week). When I can’t do FQF, I do a question box in my stories. And I hate that I can’t answer all of them! I try to find the ones that I see multiple times so that most people can benefit, but I’m going to try to compile questions in a blog when I can’t answer them in stories (you know, since instagram punishes you for using the app and won’t show my stories to people when I answer their questions 🙃)
I hope you find an answer below to really popular questions that I get all the time!
**remember, while I am a certified sleep consultant, I may not be YOUR child’s sleep consultant. The information provided here is generalized information and can’t be specific until I know the complete details about your child. If you’d like to dive deeper, make sure you check out my current packages for sleep support!
“Any connections with white noise and speech delays/issues?”
No. There’s been some studies done with rats who were exposed to high levels of white noise 24 hours a day for a long period of time (I don’t remember the specifics) with a link to auditory processing disorder, but nothing about safe levels of white noise used appropriately during sleep.
“Can you use a sleep sack if baby can stand in their crib?”
Yep! There’s no reason that you can’t, but if you feel more comfortable, there are sleep sacks available that have leg holes vs being closed at the bottom.
“My 18 month old only sleeps an hour and 15 mins regardless of dark room or wake windows.”
It never hurts to tweak the schedule with more/less wake time and see where it settles, but if overnight sleep is fine + total sleep is adequate then there’s no magical nap length any child has to reach!
“Week 3 of 4 month sleep regression. Tips?!”
Yeah— the 4 month regression doesn’t “end”. It’s a permanent change to how they sleep. My best tip is to work on independent sleep with sleep training!
“Why wait until 16 weeks/4 months to sleep train?”
You don’t have to wait. The only thing that changes with age is the methods you would want to use. They recommend not using separation based methods until 4+ months when object permanence is developing.
“Is it normal for my 6.5 month old to have a 90 min or less first wake time? I’ve tried to stretch and ends bad.”
Wake times aren’t evidence based. Meaning, there’s a ton of room for “normal” variation. The important thing is to use the wake times as a guide , but ultimately tune into what YOUR child specifically needs.
“Should baby be sleeping by the wake window time or is that when you start trying to put down?”
Wake times are important to build sleep pressure. So we want the routine finished at the end of the wake time and baby either put down at that time or you’re helping to sleep at that time.
“How to know what’s causing early waking?”
It can sometimes be a process of elimination. We always want to rule out simple things: environment for example. But it’s usually related to either habits or timing! This mini course has more information + solutions!
“6 month old started daycare and only taking 30 min naps.”
SO so so common. The best you can do is offer bedtime as early as you can (6pm is ideal) and let them catch up on the weekend!
“7 week old only naps for 30-45 mins in the crib. How to encourage longer naps?”
Actually, I’d totally celebrate and call that a win! You can extend the nap and help them sleep longer 1-2 times a day if you have the time/ability to do so. Otherwise, your options are to tweak wake times (likely not needed) or give them some time to fall back to sleep (maybe 5-10 mins depending on how they’re acting).
“3 week old daytime naps— light or dark?”
“Adjustment period from bassinet to crib and tips? 7 week old cries but eyes are closed.”
I don’t find much of an adjustment period when going from one flat sleep surface to another in a very similar environment. As far as crying but eyes closed, it’s likely they’re just in active sleep. Babies are notoriously noisy sleepers!
“Wake time for a 7 month old on 2 naps and max amount of day sleep?”
Usually wake times average 3 hours each on 2 naps and about 3.5 hours max for day time sleep.
“How long is considered a good nap?”
Anything over a 40ish min sleep cycle is probably fine! If they’re on multiple naps a day, they may distribute sleep with one long and some short naps sprinkled in. I like to get a full hour in when possible though!
“If wake times earlier in the day are short, should you add more time to wake times before bed?”
If it’s a big stretch, no I wouldn’t. If it’s only a 15 min stretch or so, that would probably be tine!
