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Writer's pictureElizabeth Eirwood

Layering Sleep Cues


One of the most common sleep strategies I teach to parents is how to layer sleep cues. It's a strategy that helps parents address many different types of sleep struggles. In this post, I'll discuss sleep cues, when it's helpful to layer them, how to layer them and what the benefits and downsides are.


What are sleep cues?

We don't usually think about it as adults, but we all use sleep cues to tell our bodies that it's time to sleep. You may have found yourself drifting off in the dark of a movie theater or the moment you lay down on the couch. That's because your body used the sleep cues of darkness and lying down to tell you that it was time to sleep. Some common sleep cues for babies and kids are darkness, sound machine, nursing, rocking, patting back, or singing songs.


When is this strategy helpful?

Layering sleep cues is best for parents who are trying to adjust their baby's bedtime routine, reduce overnight wake-ups, or night wean. For example, if a baby is accustomed to being nursed to sleep and needs to be nursed to sleep every 45 minutes when they wake up overnight it can be helpful for parents to layer sleep cues as they move away from nursing to sleep.


How do you do it?

The first step in layering sleep cues is to decide the new sleep cue that you would like your baby to use to fall asleep. This should be something that you can see yourself maintaining long term. For example, I would not recommend choosing to hold and bounce to sleep because as your baby grows this will become more and more difficult. You may also choose multiple sleep cues and layer them together. This is most helpful when you're attempting to change a very strong sleep association, such as nursing.


Next, you're going to begin using the new sleep cue while still using the old sleep cue. You'll do this for two days to a week, depending on your baby's age and how they respond to the change. After the appropriate amount of time, you'll begin shortening how long you use the old sleep cue while continuing to use the new sleep cue the entire time.


You'll continue to shorten the amount of time you use the old cue until it's down to a minute or two. At that point, you'll stop using the old cue altogether. This transition may be challenging, depending on how strong the original sleep association was. You can comfort your child if they're sad and remind them that it's okay to be sad and you love them.


What are the pros and cons?

Sleep layering can not be sped up or parents risk creating a negative association with the new sleep cue. For example, if you decided to stop nursing cold turkey and instead use a sound machine, your baby could have a trauma response to the sound machine and begin crying as soon as they heard it. So, one of the downsides to sleep layering is that you must go at your baby's speed, and sometimes that can be very slow.


The other challenge some parents encounter is choosing an alternative sleep cue. Parents often don't know what will work for their baby or what will work long-term. This can require some trial and error.

The main benefit to sleep layering is that it is a very gentle approach to changing your baby's sleep associations. There may be some tears through the transition but your baby will be supported and you will be there to guide them through the big change.


Another benefit of this strategy is that it can work for babies and kids of all ages. This makes it a versatile and useful tool that can be revisited as often as needed. For example, when your baby is very young you may want to be able to stop rocking them to sleep. When they're older you may want them to fall asleep without you in the room. Sleep layering can be used during all of these transitions.


What's next? If you're struggling to master sleep layering or you've tried it and you it hasn't seemed to help, don't hesitate to reach out. You can schedule an individual or group sleep session. If sleep layering did work, please comment and let me know! Share what sleep cue you transitioned away from and what new sleep cue you chose. Let us know what tricks you learned along the way! Cheers,








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