How Not to Get Baby to Sleep

Every new parent knows how difficult it can be to get a fussy baby to sleep, but new research suggests that a parent's best efforts may only be exacerbating the problem and that inadequate sleep in childhood can have long-lasting health effects. "It is very hard to let your child cry it out when they are toddlers," says Dr. Elsie Taveras of Harvard Medical School, referring to parents' tendency to pick up their children or bring them into the family bed to help them sleep. "But if you approach it differently ,I am not even going to start my child making these sleep associations' — it's much easier to prevent future problems."
That point is central to a new study ,which examines the link between parents' bedtime behavior and sleep disturbances in children during infancy and early childhood.
Babies who grew accustomed to falling asleep with a parent in the room, being held until they fell asleep, or being taken into a parent's bed when they couldn't sleep were also more likely as older children to have trouble falling asleep and to sleep fewer hours during the night.
The benefits of adequate sleep in infancy and childhood extend far beyond any single night of rest. According to a burgeoning body of research, children who don't sleep enough may be at risk for health problems later in life. Two additional reports, also appearing in the current issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, suggest that children's sleeplessness may be associated with an increased risk of being overweight and having emotional and behavioral difficulties in adolescence and adulthood.

In one study of 2,076 children, psychologist Alice Gregory at the University of London followed participants for 14 years, starting when the kids were between 4 and 16 years old. She found that those who slept "less than others" — roughly fewer than 10 hours a night — according to their parents, were more likely than their peers to self-report high levels of anxiety, depression and aggression later, between the ages of 18 and 32. The implication, Gregory suggests, is that children who don't sleep enough may struggle to perform during the day, resulting in lowered self-esteem, along with other emotional consequences.
These findings are the latest in a growing field of study dedicated to understanding how sleep affects health, particularly in childhood.
To that end, Taveras offers a few simple steps for parents: "Go to sleep at the same time every night. Remove things that will create a lot of stimulation before sleep — don't put a TV in the child's room. These are proven sleep hygiene techniques that will hopefully translate to more hours of sleep."