The one thing I wish I could change about this amazing gig of mine would be some of the terminology that goes along with it. “Sleeping Through the Night” “Self-Soothing” “Sleep Training”…shudder. I agree with Dr. Thomas Anders, as stated in the article attached, in that the term “sleeping through the night” shouldn’t be used for parents to believe that their child never wakes up throughout the night. We all wake throughout the night, sometimes partially and sometimes fully. He breaks it down better to call these awakenings “crying vs. non-crying awakenings.” Are those babies that wake throughout the night without crying and then falling back to sleep on their own “sleeping through the night”? Not technically but it’s in this situation that this term is used. Overall though that’s still a pretty good night, isn’t it? Your baby slept ‘unassisted’ throughout the night. Maybe that should be the new terminology? To self-soothe or not to self-soothe – this has been an ongoing debate between parenting philosophies for quite some time and will continue as such. What if we changed that term though? Forget self-soothing. We all know that to teach the skill of falling asleep on your own is really just to teach your child that they are capable of doing it themselves. They can do it themselves. They can be happy and content in their sleep environment and not need you right away. This is always something I explain to my parents - to have your child awaken without crying and not needing you right away is something we should be working towards as well. Raise your hands (or Like this comment) if you’ve heard me say that. They can do this if we allow them the chance to do it. Call it self-soothing? You can. Anders chose the term “signaled awakenings” vs. “self-soothing awakenings” and his study showed us that babies who were put down to sleep awake and fell asleep on their own had fewer “crying awakenings” throughout the night. So can these children self-soothe? It sounds like it doesn’t it? How about for arguments sake we just say that they are capable of doing it on their own. Now the term “sleep training” or “sleep trainer” are two terms that I know most consultants would love to change. I prefer sleep educator, sleep lessons, sleep coaching, heck I’ve even been referred to as a sleep goddess by a very happy family and I’ll take that term any day! But at the end of the day if continuing to help families learn and receive the healthy sleep they need in order to function as the healthiest family unit they can be means I’m known as the “sleep trainer” I’ll take it! Have a great night all! uncommonjohn.wordpress/2014/09/27/the-researcher-who-help-coined-the-term-self-soothing-weighs-in/
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 02:00:00 +0000
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