Sleep associations & healthy baby sleep

Sleep associations

 

[caption id="attachment_2523" align="alignleft" width="150"] healthy baby sleep[/caption]

 

When we talk about healthy sleep, how sleep works and how to maximise sleep for anyone not only your baby, knowing about sleep associations is an important part of it all.  Knowing about sleep associations will help you trouble shoot sleep problems and get you the sleep you are after.

Sleep associations come into play in light sleep states. Generally if what was happening when you  went to sleep isn’t happening in light sleep, you will usually wake up because the trigger for sleep isn’t there any more. This is a sleep association.

Basically the thing that is associated with sleep usually needs to be there  at light sleep to give that signal that it is still sleep time. Remember light sleep is usually just a lighter consciousness ideally, Not a complete wake up.

For your baby the same applies.  This is often one of the main reasons that  your baby may at times wake up after a short time and need help to get back to sleep again.

Once your baby knows about sleep  this is not such a big factor. When learning about sleep it is a bigger influence.

Sleep associations can be termed helpful or unhelpful. As long as they are working they are helpful. When they are not, they are unhelpful.  Sleep associations can start out being helpful and then change into being unhelpful after a time.  As your baby grows and matures what once was helpful may become unhelpful. This is how some sleep difficulties inadvertently come around.

 

Young babies will usually require a number of  things to help him or her sleep. When you use a number of things for sleep some of them may eventually be unhelpful and some will always remain helpful.  If there are a few associations we can wean off the unhelpful ones when they are no longer helpful. In this way you still have helpful ones so you are not trying to start something new at a time that is stressful for everyone.