Sleep associations and sleep cues

Sleep Associations and Sleep Cues What’s the difference?

The difference between sleep associations and sleep cues is that one is signalling bed time and the other is required for sleep.

You can signal to your baby/child that bed time is coming by many cues such as bath, story, quiet time, getting changed, feeding and music just to name a few.

Sleep cues such as these are also known as wind down which sets a calm, relaxed environment for sleep. Sleep cues are not required to get to sleep, they just signal that bed time is coming

Sleep associations are necessary to enable sleep. Some common examples are rocking, nursing breast-feeding and dummies. Each time baby is going to sleep, the sleep association is necessary.

Sleep associations generally evolve and disappear eventually.

Many parents use sleep associations and are happy to do so. 
Some choose to stop sleep associations if they become too invasive and interfere with their own sleep.

Kathy Collins 
RN.CM.ECHN
Sleep solutions for your family
☎ 0402 244 538
🖱[email protected]
💻www.babysleepwell.com.au

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