Sleep, sleep, your kingdom for sleep

[Justin Keane]

First post here--I train out of Crossfit Boston and at EC's (hollah!) prompting on our blog, I checked into Lights Out. Pretty compelling to say the least.

Couple of questions I wanted to throw out there:
1) Maybe I read the book too quickly, but I didn't find much mention of sound. I've always needed (or got to sleep much more quickly with) some ambient noise to get me down. (Usually I find that sports talk radio does the trick.) What are some opinions on the quality of sleep viz a viz background noise?

2) We have a 6 week old son sleeping in our room, so going completely lights out isn't an option right now. Am I correct in my reading that the TV light is the worst light of all? Any advice on what night light or what sort of night light might be the light of least resistance, sleep quality-wise?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[Jay Cohen]

Justin;

Read the book few months ago, went out and bought a sleep mask, like 10 bucks.
Sound, can't help you on that, but ANYTHING that breaks your sleep pattern is not good.

Good luck

[Garrett Smith]

We use white noise all the time, helps keep our ~4 month baby girl asleep better, longer.

If you guys are breastfeeding, make sure mom is getting her EPA+DHA daily (I typically recommend 2400mg/day total between the two). That will help the baby to sleep through the night sooner (hopefully, for your sake).

We used an LED flashlight on an as-needed basis when Taryn was <6 weeks and woke during the night. We don't have that issue anymore. We turn on the (connected) bathroom light if we do need more light in the bedroom where everyone is currently sleeping.

Get the baby on a sleeping schedule--we have found a room as dark as possible (with the house in general getting darker 30min. to 1 hour before bedtime to be very helpful in "hinting" that bedtime is coming.

As was told to me (and I found it to be true), the book "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" is worth the $$ just for the section on putting baby to sleep.

I know I answered some questions that weren't asked, but I wanted to help other places if that was possible.

To end with some humor: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/drunk-par...afe-262968.php

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

We use white noise all the time, helps keep our ~4 month baby girl asleep better, longer.

If you guys are breastfeeding, make sure mom is getting her EPA+DHA daily (I typically recommend 2400mg/day total between the two). That will help the baby to sleep through the night sooner (hopefully, for your sake).

We used an LED flashlight on an as-needed basis when Taryn was <6 weeks and woke during the night. We don't have that issue anymore. We turn on the (connected) bathroom light if we do need more light in the bedroom where everyone is currently sleeping.

Get the baby on a sleeping schedule--we have found a room as dark as possible (with the house in general getting darker 30min. to 1 hour before bedtime to be very helpful in "hinting" that bedtime is coming.

As was told to me (and I found it to be true), the book "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" is worth the $$ just for the section on putting baby to sleep.

I know I answered some questions that weren't asked, but I wanted to help other places if that was possible.

To end with some humor: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/drunk-par...afe-262968.php

Good advices. Second on the white noise and keeping regular schedule cues...Also, I picked up an LED flashlight that does white light and red light, much easier to negotiate using the red which doesn't farkle your night vision.


to the plus side, once kids have ruined your sleep (forever), you find you don't need as much.

[Chris Forbis]

I live in an apartment and find that some kind of white noise is a must so I don't lie awake listening to each and every little noise from my neighbors. I find a $10 box fan does the trick quite well.

[Garrett Smith]

to the plus side, once kids have ruined your sleep (forever), you find you don't need as much.

Dang if that isn't the truth. I now realize truly what a wuss I used to be about a little sleep deficit. I'm still spoiled considering what I hear other parents have gone or are going through!

I wonder if the "Lights Out!" authors ever had kids, or simply just their ivory towers?

That being said, any work you put into getting your baby to sleep soundly will be well worth it in the end. It can take a bit of patience to get the schedule down, but it is so worth it.

I read about the white noise in the book I mentioned above, a couple weeks later a patient told me she had an extra one just sitting around. Nice fancy one from Sharper Image--we only ever use the "rain" setting. I'm growing quite used to it.

There are free websites on the internet that generate white noise, you can also buy CDs and put them on repeat for pretty cheap. Try to get ones that aren't a "loop" of sound, sometimes they can have little sound quirks in the loop that are quite easy to focus on (very annoying, like a slow dripping faucet).

Reference on the DHA and baby sleep patterns:
Higher maternal plasma docosahexaenoic acid during pregnancy is associated with more mature neonatal sleep-state patterning.

[Justin Keane]

thanks for all of the great suggestions, ladies and gents.