Brain Rules for Baby: how to raise a smart and happy child from zero to five

by John Medina

A team of researchers from the United Kingdom specifically focused on whether this approach helps infants establish sleep consolidation. The results were not reassuring. The more a parent “rescued” their infant at night, the more sleep problems the infant displayed over time. The infants displayed a marked reduction in the capacity to return independently to sleep after arousal, for example. “Comfort visits” also had consequences for childhood sleep far past the first year, other researchers discovered. Actively “rescued” children at 18 months old still had problems getting a solid night’s rest (now defined as six uninterrupted hours). Things were not substantially better when the children reached their second year of life. Excessive interference at night appeared to be a gift that kept on giving, but it was not the gift the parent wanted.