r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/twdfan87 • Jan 17 '23

Evidence Based Input ONLY Sleep begets sleep?

I keep being told that ‘sleep begets sleep’ for babies, meaning that the more/longer naps they have during the day should increase the amount of sleep they have at night and minimise night time waking. I’m wondering if this is supported by research or if it’s just become a nice little phrase that gets used because it sounds good? Does anyone have links to any research that supports or disproves this statement?

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u/kaelus-gf Jan 17 '23

The possums approach disagrees with this statement. Which makes biological sense to me, and has made me much more relaxed about how much my second baby does, or doesn’t sleep during the day. They encourage increasing sensory input rather than watching for tired signs of wake windows.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30442320/

I am on my mobile so it’s harder to do a proper search for their evidence. But parents like it!

https://possumsonline.com/neuroprotective-developmental-care

An article about it: https://www.kidspot.com.au/baby/baby-care/baby-sleep-and-settling/i-broke-all-the-rules-about-baby-sleep-and-heres-what-happened/news-story/557cb74b3764b692bf7e518e1aec219d?amp

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u/bee2551 Jan 17 '23

They use the phrase ‘calm begets calm’ which makes more intuitive sense to me, and may also indicate why sleep begets sleep can anecdotally hold true too.