Study: Baby Sleep Methods Meet Test of Time

Popular techniques that help babies fall asleep on their own don’t have any long-term impact on mental health, sleep quality or the parent-child relationship, a new study finds. The new study is a follow-up, done when children were 6 years old. The study included 225 children. It began when they were 7 months old and were having sleep problems. They were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group of parents received training in techniques called “controlled comforting” and “camping out.” With controlled comforting, parents put their babies down for sleep and leave the room. They let the babies cry for increasing amounts of time before comforting them, to encourage them to fall asleep on their own. Parents who camp out stay in the room, but gradually move farther away. People in the other study group did not receive training in these techniques.