Human beings need different amounts of sleep based on their age. The elderly need the least sleep per night, while children need closer to 10 hours per sleep. Babies and toddlers need the most, especially newborns, since their bodies and brains are still growing and developing. In particular, while a baby needs a lot of sleep in 24 hours, that sleep will not be all at night, and a baby’s sleep schedule may not mesh well with that of its parents. A baby’s sleep is fragmented, as babies often wake up in the night many times for feeding, a diaper change, or anything else. Newborns will especially need this, as they require feeding every three hours or so, so naturally they will wake back up.
All of this is natural and normal, but the parents may not like it. Children and adults have a natural circadian rhythm, but a newborn will not yet have this pattern set up. Once a baby is three to five months old, it may start to develop that pattern, but sleep training methods can help boost this process. Sleep consultants for babies can be hired from local agencies, and a baby sleep consultant may help an older baby or a toddler adopt a sleep pattern similar to that of their parents. Exact sleep training methods vary, but these sleep training methods may include gradually shifting the baby or toddler’s eating and nap times to adjust their schedule. When sleep training methods are used, a toddler or older baby may sleep at the same time as their parents, which may be a great convenience to everyone involved.
Why a Sleep Trainer May be Hired
Babies fragment their sleep, and as mentioned above, they often wake up for care. While babies get a lot of sleep, as do toddlers, rarely will that sleep last for more than a few hours at a time. Adults may sleep for eight hours nonstop on their own, which is important for their deep sleep schedules. But if this deep sleep gets interrupted by their baby’s cries, that can become a real problem and cause a sleep debt to add up. When a baby is born, its parents’ brains are rewired in many ways, including increased sensitivity to their baby’s cries. This is more pronounced in the mother, but both parents will easily wake up if their baby cries in the night for attention. Babies under a certain weight or age may need frequent feeding, and even older ones may still need diaper changes during the night. A baby is only acting naturally, but the parents may want to invest in professional help to adjust how that baby sleeps. This can be done when a baby sleep trainer is hired.
Hiring a Baby Sleep Trainer
Some parents may be too busy to help their baby or young toddler adjust their sleep schedule, or they might not know how. In cases like these, the parents can look for baby sleep training agencies in their area, and use an online search to narrow down the results. This may include “baby sleep trainers near Newark NJ” or “toddler sleep training agencies in Boston MA.” Doing this will show some local agencies, and parents can contact one. It should be noted, though, that these agencies are not federally regulated. Parents may want to do their own homework, so to speak, so that they find and contact only honest and high-quality agencies like these.
Once a proper training agency is found and contacted, a sleep trainer (probably a woman) will be sent to the parents’ house, where she may interview the parents and give them a questionnaire to fill out. All this is important, as it helps the trainer get a better idea of what that household is like. Now, the trainer may gradually adjust the baby’s eating and nap schedule over the next week or two, and older babies and toddlers will be most receptive to this and more easily adjust how they sleep. Toddlers will take longer than babies to adjust, but the end result is the same: the youngster will sleep for hours on end without waking up, and at the same time as their parents.
