How sleep training changes depending on your child’s sleep personality
There are many things to consider when you’re embarking on some sleep training, which technique you’ll use, when you’ll get started, and how to make the process as easy as possible for your family.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS POST
- Your child’s unique sleep personality, you can take my sleep personality quiz.
- What you can expect when sleep training.
- Techniques you want to use for your child’s sleep personality.
- Which technique work with all sleep personalities.
You don’t want to overlook how your child’s unique sleep personality will impact sleep training.
Do you know your child’s sleep personality? If you’ve not taken my temperament quiz, do that now.
Sleep Personality Quiz
Now that you know your child’s sleep personality, you can set yourself up for sleep training success by choosing a technique that will work for your child and the pace at which you’ll want to work.
Children who are laidback may find it easier to adapt to new situations. However, shy children take longer to adjust, making it more challenging for them. Intense children may have an easy time with change but may have a difficult time. It depends on how they feel about that change. If it’s something that they’re interested in, they are going to 100% enjoy it. If it is something that they are not interested in and they do not want to do, they are 100 % going to tell you their true feelings.
LAIDBACK
Laidback children have an easier time when it comes to change, but that doesn’t mean sleep training will be easy. When you’re changing how your child falls asleep you’re breaking habits, and we all know that can be hard to do. Your laidback child is likely to get upset and how you deal with that will depend on the sleep training technique you use.
Shy
Your shy child will have a more challenging time. As change is harder for shy children, getting started with sleep training can be challenging. There are some things you can do to make sleep training your shy child a little easier. Ensure your child is very comfortable with their bed; they need to feel good about the space to fall asleep easily. If they have a negative association with their bed, try to turn that around. Let them have plenty of playtime in their bed during your playtime, not associated with sleep time. You want to choose a sleep training technique where you will remain with your child. Being left alone may be a little too much for them. Have a cut-off in place when sleep training.
What’s a cut-off point?
The cut-off point is the maximum time that you are going to be using your technique before helping them to sleep the way you did before starting with some sleep training.
The reason this works (and works well) is, some children need to be shown the changes you’re making before they are comfortable with them, and they become effective. Much like when you go somewhere new, your child may spend a while getting comfortable with the space before they are happy to go off on their own.
It’s the same when it comes to sleep. They may need a few nights of realising what this change is before they are then going to be comfortable and able to fall asleep.
I like to have a cut-off sometime between 20 and 60 minutes. Chose a time you are comfortable with.
When you reach your cut-off point, take a little break, leave the room for around 5 minutes, keeping things calm and then go back into the bedroom and help your child to sleep.
You may need to do this between 3 and 5 nights before your child is able to fall asleep.
Intense
Intense children will not be happy being put into their bed, relaxed but awake, which is how we want to get started with any sleep training technique. They are not going to be relaxed for very long. If you lay them down, no doubt if they will get to sitting or standing, they will do so within a split second, and they will be pretty furious at you because you are making these massive changes, and they don’t want these changes! You will want a sleep training technique where you will remain with your child, and you want to avoid that big cry as much as possible. When your intense child gets to that big urgent cry, it can be hard for them to calm down and relax, and they obviously need to be calm to fall asleep. We don’t fall asleep when panicking unless it’s due to exhaustion. Intense children should also have a cut-off point when sleep training.
You know your child better than anyone
Don’t ever do something you are uncomfortable with during sleep training; if you don’t think a technique will work, I can almost guarantee it won’t work.
There are many different sleep training techniques, ranging from cry it out, where you put your child into their bed at the beginning of the night and don’t go to them until the morning (yep, that really is a technique!), cry it out with timed checks (Ferber method), pick up put down, and my technique The Michi Method which is the most gentle sleep training technique, you can pick your child up whenever you want to, and you can soothe them however you need to. The technique involves you gradually getting less involved, and your child becomes a more independent sleeper.
Want to learn all about The Michi Method? You can get everything you need HERE.
