How to Put the Baby to Bed Without Waking Him
Each of my three children had difficulty falling asleep for different reasons. She will never sleep in a crib, only with a parent. The rest fell asleep more easily, but if you kept them at that time, good luck if you put them to bed without waking them up. Now, a team of scientists has tested the “walk and sit ” method, which they say may be the best way to get a crying baby to calm down, fall asleep and stay asleep.
None of the components of this method will seem innovative to educators, but I must admit that the way they put them together is a sequence that I have never tried in this way. (In contrast, fellow Lifehacker writer Rachel Fairbank says the method is pretty much the same as putting her baby to bed. Some of us, I think, are just slower.)
Here is the procedure. You start with a crying baby.
- Walk the baby until he stops crying. They should be asleep in about five minutes.
- Here’s the important part: sit with your child for five to eight minutes. This allows them to fall asleep while they are still in contact with you.
- Then put them to bed.
The researchers admit that their study is “exploratory in nature and needs to be confirmed,” so no one promises that this is a magical sleep spell. But this is consistent with several observations they made that most infant caregivers would probably agree with:
- Humans (and other animals that carry their young) have a “transport response” that calms babies when they are moved.
- Crying babies fall asleep pretty reliably when you walk with them. (Happy, alert babies don’t.)
- Babies wake up when they notice that they are being separated from their caregiver.
- Putting a baby to bed “either interrupts or deepens” his sleep.
- Babies enter a deeper sleep stage about five to eight minutes after they first fall asleep, making them more likely to continue sleeping when you put them to bed.
Put it all together and it turns out that the walk-then-sit protocol should have a pretty good success rate. Please note that this is for crying babies, not vigilant ones, so it may not be something you can count on for a normal sleep pattern.
It also probably goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – that if your baby has a reason to cry, you should take care of that in the first place. If they’re hungry or in pain, they won’t necessarily fall asleep at night just because you walked with them. But if your kids tend to crank up and cry when all they need is a nap, it might be worth a try.