Will my child grow out of bad sleep?

    My name is Mica. I am a certified sleep consultant and founder of Rested Mama, Happy Baby. I help families on their journey to establish healthy sleep habits and get the whole family sleeping again!

   I often see various mommy groups online trying to support other parents going through a rough time navigating through sleep that children will just grow out of inadequate sleep. But, how true is this? Unfortunately, the evidence says otherwise.  

   According to various studies, including one completed at the University of Maryland in the Department of Psychology, 84% of their sample children persisted in having the same sleep obstacles after three years, showing that children do not always simply grow out of it.  Simply put, most children who have sleep obstacles as a baby end up as children who don’t sleep well and end up as adults who don’t sleep well.  

 Good Sleep:

  Now, when I talk about “good sleep,” it’s important to know there are different factors to “good sleep,” and not all sleep is created equal.  Healthy sleep qualities must have the following:

• A sufficient total amount of sleep
• Consolidated, uninterrupted sleep
• The proper amount of day naps by age that aligns with your child’s biological rhythms 

Check out our FREE Wake Time Chart Here

Consequences of Poor Sleep:  

 Over time, when quality sleep is not attained, it normalizes to chronic sleep deprivation which can come in all forms of the following for children over time:

• Inability to self-regulate
• Fight response to sleep
• Hyper activeness, awake or wired
• Inability to focus

   Just like we’re taught to have proper feeding and hygiene habits, our babies and children can learn the proper practices and skills to sleep better for their development.  While sleep is natural, the feeling of tiredness is just another emotion that children need guidance to navigate through in healthy ways.  There are a ton of free resources on our blog!  Continue to navigate through what you need to understand more about how to ensure the right sleep for your child to set them up on a path of successful, quality, sleep.  There are a million methods and approaches, and you can find the one that works for you and your family.  

   Need more help or want to learn more on how to implement better sleep in a holistic way with your family?  Schedule a free 1:1 with me here.

  Learn more about how we work with families to help their babies sleep 10+ hours at night without Cry-it-out or Ferber.  Join our free webinar!

Exhaustion is optional, 

Rested Mama, Happy Baby Founder