What happens to poor sleepers who aren’t sleep trained?

[ebveloz]

I’m curious what happens to infants with parent-led sleep associations (I.e. need support falling asleep after each sleep cycle) who are not sleep trained. However, I’m not looking for the pros and cons of sleep training I can find lots of info on that online but having trouble finding out more about my more specific question. Thanks!

ETA: I’m curious about the downvotes? Is it because by nature, the answers to my question are anecdotal, not scientific? I strive to take a science led approach to parenting (alas I’m a right brained artist which is why I love learning from this community!) but have found sleep related topics to be quite divisive topic. My own understanding of the research based aspect of infant sleep and sleep training comes from Medina’s Brain Rules for Baby. I’m coming to this topic with an open mind and see the benefits of both sleep training and not sleep training.

 

[johnchristian]

@ebveloz There have been a few studies that have shown that any impact achieved for sleep trained infants and toddlers compared to non sleep trained disappears by age 2.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...al_Infant_Sleep_Intervention_Randomized_Trial

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23516146/

The discontented baby book goes into the current research in good depth (advocating against traditional sleep training methods). This write up also provides a good summary of the existing sleep training origins and research including pros and cons: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220322-how-sleep-training-affects-babies

 

[ferero]

@johnchristian This BBC article is awesome, thanks for sharing!

 

[cindyjay]

@ebveloz I think there needs to be some differentiation between poor sleepers and frequent wakers.

It’s biologically normal for babies to wake regularly. This is very different to not getting enough sleep or not getting refreshing sleep. There is no evidence that sleep training improves sleep (E.g. source) for the baby - plenty of evidence of parents noticing fewer wake ups, getting better sleep themselves, having improved mental health, etc (E.g. source). Arguably this makes them better parents, which is better for the baby, but there isn’t a statistically notable improvement in sleep quality created by sleep training.

Sleeping in one block per 24 hours is a social/cultural construct, rather than a biological need. There are plenty of cultures where sleep comes in two blocks - night sleep plus a siesta. There is evidence that for hundreds, if not thousands of years, adults would sleep for a few hours, wake to pray, have sex or read, then go for a second sleep (E.g. source). The milestone we seek of a baby sleeping through the night simply wasn’t a thing only a few hundred years ago.

 

[ravenblue]

@cindyjay Co sleeping doesn’t influence how often the kids wake up or their sleep quality but does for the parents. Plenty of co sleeping cultures around with no greater incidence of sleep disorders eg Japan.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10201715/

 

[seditthis]

@ebveloz I want to point out the massive selection bias around sleep training.

ADVICE YOU MAY GET: “We sleep trained and it wasn’t that bad, and our toddler is a great sleeper, definitely do it!!” —> their child is naturally a good sleeper so sleep training was easy.

ADVICE YOU MAY GET: “oh yeah we tried sleep training but I guess we didn’t try hard enough, we had to repeat it twice and then we gave up. I wish we’d stuck to it because he still doesn’t sleep very well.” —> Their child is naturally not a good sleeper and it’s not their fault.