What is Infant Sleep Counselling?

Infant Sleep Counselling is a gentle, evidence-based approach to helping parents and caregivers understand and improve their baby’s sleep patterns.

Unlike sleep training, which often focuses on strict schedules or controlled crying, sleep counselling is more holistic and responsive.

Common Symptoms & Experience

Common Symptoms

Infant Sleep Counselling is not a condition with symptoms but rather a supportive approach to addressing sleep challenges in babies. However, parents typically seek sleep counselling due to the following common infant sleep difficulties:

Frequent Night Wakings

The baby wakes up multiple times during the night, sometimes every 1-2 hours.
Difficulty settling back to sleep without parental intervention (e.g., rocking, feeding, or holding).

Short or Inconsistent Naps

Naps are brief (less than 30–45 minutes) or unpredictable throughout the day.
The baby struggles to transition between sleep cycles, leading to overtiredness and fussiness.

Difficulty Falling Asleep

The baby requires excessive soothing (e.g., constant rocking, feeding, or bouncing) to fall asleep.
Resistance to sleep, including crying or fussing at bedtime.

Experiences

People with ADHD often experience challenges beyond the core symptoms, including:

Emotional Exhaustion and Sleep Deprivation

Many parents feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and exhausted due to their baby’s frequent night wakings and short naps.
Sleep deprivation can affect mental health, leading to increased stress, anxiety, and difficulty managing daily responsibilities.

Confusion About Sleep Methods

Parents often feel uncertain about sleep strategies, receiving conflicting advice from books, family, and the internet.
Some struggle with the idea of letting their baby cry it out and prefer a more gentle, responsive approach.

Relief and Confidence After Support

After working with a sleep counsellor, parents often feel empowered and more in tune with their baby’s sleep needs.
Families experience better sleep routines, reduced stress, and a stronger emotional bond with their baby.

How Psychological Therapy Can Help You

Psychological therapy plays a crucial role in supporting parents and caregivers dealing with infant sleep challenges. It provides emotional support, practical strategies, and a deeper understanding of the parent-child relationship. Here’s how therapy can help:

Managing Parental Stress and Anxiety

Sleep deprivation can lead to high levels of stress, anxiety, and even postpartum depression in parents.
Therapy provides coping strategies to manage overwhelm, frustration, and feelings of helplessness related to infant sleep issues.

Therapy helps parents understand their baby’s sleep cues and emotional needs, leading to a gentler, more responsive approach to sleep.
It encourages secure attachment by promoting soothing techniques that align with the baby’s developmental stage.

Strengthening the Parent-Child Bond

Addressing Unrealistic Expectations and Sleep Guilt

Many parents feel pressure to get their baby to sleep through the night early on, leading to feelings of failure when challenges arise.
Psychological therapy helps parents set realistic expectations and reframe their approach to sleep as a developmental process, rather than a problem to fix.