How Sleep Associations Can Keep Your Baby Up All Night

Think about how you go to sleep each night. Do you read a book, or watch your favorite show before bed? Do you take a warm bath, and slip into your comfy pajamas? Or maybe all you need is your favorite pillow? These are associations that help remind us it's time to sleep, and any deviation from that can completely throw us off. You could be up all night, tossing and turning, just because you don't have your pillow, or you weren't able to take your warm bath. We associate these props or rituals with sleep, so without them it's almost impossible to fall asleep, even if your dead tired! This is exactly what happens with babies. They need that exact sleep association in order to fall asleep, and since they have many sleep-wake cycles during the night, they will also need that particular prop to fall back asleep. Not to mention if your baby has a sleep association with you, then she is going to wake up alarmed, when she realizes she is no longer in your arms.

Rocking and nursing a baby to sleep is a parent's natural and immediate response to their baby's crying. And at times, that's ok. However, it becomes a problem when you're up all night nursing, rocking, bouncing etc because that's the only way your baby will fall asleep…Read more