Sleep associations

Sleep associations are ‘things’ that your baby associates with falling asleep.  These are not good or bad habits, they simply form part of the way in which your baby is used to settling off to sleep.

Positive sleep associations can be really helpful to introduce - these do not need replicating in the middle of a nap or overnight, they remain the same throughout the duration of sleep.

• Swaddle or sleeping bag

• White noise

• Cuddly/lovey (for older babies who are unswaddled and in a cot)

• Darkness

• Pre-nap/bedtime ritual

Some sleep associations do need to be reconsidered. Your baby is often unable to replicate these associations on their own and therefore the burden lies with the parents to replicate it.  There is nothing inherently wrong with these sleep associations unless they are causing short naps or frequent night waking. If this is the case, then we need to reconsider the effect the association is having on the quality of sleep for you and your baby.

• Feeding to sleep

• Rocking to sleep

• Bouncing to sleep

• Pushing the stroller to sleep

• Driving to sleep

• Replacing a pacifier/dummy

For example, if your baby is waking multiple times in the night and only resettling back to sleep once rocked, your baby is reliant on you to aid them in getting back to sleep.  We can look to replace the rocking with some white noise and a lovey, so we give your baby a new set of associations that do not need to be replicated throughout the night, and work on helping your baby learn to fall asleep without being rocked.