feeling curious
Has anyone on this site really has success with sleep training!?!? By using Tracy or books? Just curious because I don't see a lot of success stories. Maybe that is because the sisters with the success no longer check in with this group??
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
6 Things That Cause Early Rising
Early Rising is one of the most
frustrating parts of Baby and Toddler Sleeping Issues. You have put
great effort into helping your child learn sleep skills and even though they
are generally sleeping through the night, the early rising is slowly killing
you. (I'm being just a little dramatic)
Early Rising is when the baby or
toddler wakes and can't get back to sleep well before you are ready to wake up
and start your day. More technically, it's likely before 6am. The
body's sleep cycles are different in those early hours and it's harder to get
back to sleep anyway.
Here are the things that
typically cause Early Rising and once you have identified the cause, you can
work on the solution.
1. Lack of day sleep. Your child's body has a
period of time it can stay awake and when she runs out of energy, she has a
sleep window. If she is not falling asleep by the end of the sleep
window, her body produces a hormone called cortisol. This is the stress
hormone. The fight or flight hormone reaction. It gives you an
adrenaline like burst of energy. It's hard to go to sleep for
her nap with that pumping through her system and it stays in your system for a
while, messing with naps and night sleep. Often causing early rising.
2. Too late bedtime.
Similar to Lack of day sleep, missing your bedtime sleep window also
causes a rush of cortisol and its residual affect can cause early rising.
4. Lack of skills from
being put to bed asleep. If you hold or rock or nurse your baby to sleep,
they are in a different place when she wakes up between sleep cycles and needs
you to help her fall back to sleep. Again, she has insufficient sleep skills.
She may get more cortisol in the night from waking and needing help and
by the early morning hours, just can't get back to sleep.
5. Tummy discomfort from
food issues. If your baby had a food sensitivity or is having a negative
digestive reaction to a new food, that can often manifest in the early hours
when sleep is more difficult. Have you ever woken from a bad headache or
a tummy ache? It's in
6. Developmental
milestones like crawling and walking. These are major skills that require brain
and muscle changes. When your baby is working on a new skill, they want
to practice this new skill when they wake up between sleep cycles. It's a
very exciting time. The sooner she masters the skill, the sooner her
sleep can get back on track.
Tracy Spackman is a Certified
Gentle Sleep Coach.
Call her if you need sleep help.
www.GetQuietNights.com
Saturday, December 27, 2014
What is a cortisol rush??
This is a common question I get on my Facebook Gentle Sleep Support Group "Sleep Sisters" https://www.facebook.com/groups/977753712250917/
Cortisol is the stress hormone your body produces when you get overtired. You have a level of cortisol in your body when you are awake all the time but when your body is running out of energy and needs sleep, you have a sleep window when it's the easiest time to fall asleep.
If you aren't asleep or settling into sleep by the end of your sleep window, your body will produce more cortisol to help you cope. It's a cortisol rush or a cortisol spike.
It actually kills brain cells so you want to avoid it as much as you can. To give your baby the most brain health potential, catch their sleep windows and help them keep to low stress. Be responsive.
For an adult, the late night second wind you get is a cortisol rush. Have you ever stayed up late, at a party or working and pushed through the tired feeling. Then you get your second wind. An hour or so later you may push through it again and get another second wind. Then by the time you do go to bed, you feel wired and tired? Then you sleep fitfully and wake early. Perhaps you feel sick in the morning. That's how babies feel when they get overtired.
It takes about 45 min to burn off the initial cortisol rush and then it has a residual effect, affecting future sleep so it messes with night sleep even if it happens during the day. The first step to improving sleep is to catch the sleep windows and maximize day sleep.
Cortisol is the stress hormone your body produces when you get overtired. You have a level of cortisol in your body when you are awake all the time but when your body is running out of energy and needs sleep, you have a sleep window when it's the easiest time to fall asleep. If you aren't asleep or settling into sleep by the end of your sleep window, your body will produce more cortisol to help you cope. It's a cortisol rush or a cortisol spike.
It actually kills brain cells so you want to avoid it as much as you can. To give your baby the most brain health potential, catch their sleep windows and help them keep to low stress. Be responsive.
For an adult, the late night second wind you get is a cortisol rush. Have you ever stayed up late, at a party or working and pushed through the tired feeling. Then you get your second wind. An hour or so later you may push through it again and get another second wind. Then by the time you do go to bed, you feel wired and tired? Then you sleep fitfully and wake early. Perhaps you feel sick in the morning. That's how babies feel when they get overtired.
It takes about 45 min to burn off the initial cortisol rush and then it has a residual effect, affecting future sleep so it messes with night sleep even if it happens during the day. The first step to improving sleep is to catch the sleep windows and maximize day sleep.
If you need sleep help, check out www.GetQuietNights.com
Tracy Spackman
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Thankful for a Thanksgiving disaster.
On Thanksgiving, as a family, I get each of the children to make one piece of our big Thanksgiving dinner. This year, my husband did the turkey and the stuffing. My oldest daughter made the pies and the boys did the potatoes. They get to choose what they want to do and my younger daughter Chloe chose to make the bread rolls.
To make the rolls nutritious, I wanted to her grind wheat so we have fresh whole wheat flour to use and we use mostly whole wheat flour with a little bit of white flour to lighten them up. I wasn't in charge of anything until the end when I was going to make some yams and so I was busy with other things and trying to supervise a little bit. Chloe didn't know how to turn on the wheat grinder and after I showed her I walked out of the pantry. (I keep my wheat grinder in the pantry because it is loud like a plane engine.) We were starting early in the morning so the bread would have time to rise and bake and be all ready for an early dinner. Fresh hot rolls, Yum.
Well after I walked out of the pantry, she turned on the grinder and then she walked out and a few minutes later somebody walked into the pantry to get something. I heard shouting and exclamations of a white Christmas in Arizona! I came into the kitchen to see what was going on and they were telling me it was snowing in the pantry. The entire room was billowing with swirling flour and settling all over the place. Unfortunately, If you don't have the Grinder bowl set all the way back into the machine, the flour will billow out. Usually when this happens it's obvious and I turn the machine off and fix it and start over. When Chloe noticed the flour billowing out of the machine, she says she thought it was supposed to do that and so she just walked out. Everybody had a really good laugh about our white Christmas in the pantry. Until I insisted that they had to clean it up. It took all day to clean up the entire mess.
Everything in there had to be wiped down all of the dishes had to be washed, lots of vacuuming sweeping and wiping. Everybody pitched in and helped. It still took all day. The rolls still got made and the dinner was wonderful.
The best part, my pantry has never been so organized and clean. Ever.
The best part, my pantry has never been so organized and clean. Ever.
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