What happens when we sleep?
I am deeply fond of the realm of sleep. I think it is a blessing, like the ability to forget and forgive.
I am fascinated by how we drift away from a state of complete awareness into a light phase of drowsiness, and then we fall into a deep restorative sleep, only to come up now and then to dream a little, be briefly aware and fall back asleep.
I find the electrical waves from the brain during our sleep a confirmation that we are more energy than anything else.
The way our brain communicates with our body even when we are not giving any aware signals like the stillness of our body when we are dreaming and its mobility during our deep sleep phase made me again, totally impressed by the cleverness of our body and mind.
This journey from consciousness to the unconsciousness, when we completely lose control and let our thoughts make their own movie while we are asleep is inspirational for me.
However, I discovered how precious and vital sleep is in our lives and how to value its worth only when I became a mom and realised how difficult it is without sleep, without the luxury of catching up a lost night any time soon.
After one exhausting experience with my first born baby boy, it was a revelation for me to find out that I do not have to wait another 2-3 years until my baby girl will eventually and naturally learn how to fall asleep by herself.
One thing led to the other, one talk with another mom, one book, another book, an online workshop and then here I was, deeply charmed by the field of baby sleep coaching.
It was then when I found out about the circadian rhythms and their influence on our biological clock, about sleep cycles and their connections, about the familiarity of the environment when we briefly wake up to instinctively check if everything is the same.
My first experience with baby sleep coaching
It goes without saying that the first baby I wanted to sleep coach and prove all these science based theories was my own daughter. I must confess, it was not easy at first. I was scared and confused which did not help my already established long term over-tiredness. But with the help of my patient coach, I did it and in 3 week time, my baby girl was falling asleep very easy at night, woke up maximum 1 time per night and had her restorative naps throughout the day. I soon realised how happy and strong she proved to be, how her appetite increased and her immune system strengthened.
But more than the changes in her behaviour, I felt on my own skin the bliss of sleeping through the night, the joy of quietly spending the evenings with my partner and the luxury of making plans for myself during the day.
However, I do not expect my interest in baby sleep coaching to be universal and be embraced by every family.
What we need to do to succeed in this field
As I already said, baby sleep coaching is not for everyone, because everyone is different and has different life principles. I guess you need to have some sort of characteristics in order to succeed in the field of baby sleep training.
- First, you need to have an open mind, accept the challenge and do things a bit different from how your parents raised their kids.
- You have to be an organised person who likes planning and routines.
- You need to understand the importance of sleep and make it a priority in your life.
- You need to have the strength to accept your baby’s crying and try to look at it as a way of communication instead of trying to shut it down.
- You need to think of yourself and your own state of mind, of your influence on your baby and the message you transmit if you are seriously sleep deprived.
- You need to be willing to adapt your schedule to your baby’s needs and not the other way around.
- You also need to be a team player, to be on the same page with your partner and be 100% consistent when embarking on sleep coaching your baby, clever combating every other external judgement (even from your own mother or mother in law ;).
- You can by all means, be attached to your baby up to the level when you give him the time and space to try something on his own, like falling asleep by himself or discover how a toy works without any intrusive intervention.
- You should consider confidence, perseverance and patience as treasured virtues for every parent.
- You should have faith in your baby that he/she can do it and regard him/her as a different unique human being who needs your unconditional love and support.
- You should be aware of your role as the first and most important influencer in your child’s life and start looking at your own lifestyle and way of thinking, which are about to set themselves as examples for your baby.
And for all these to happen, we might need to look way back into our own childhood and try to heal our own wounds first. This is not easy and could be the subject of another journey. But it can get so much better.
So, if you do not feel like resonating with most of the above mentioned features or you are not willing to be more aware of them or even try to change things a bit, then baby sleep coaching is not for you. That’s perfectly okay, it is what it is and it is your choice. I respect it.
But if you took the time to read all these facts about sleep and what is takes to make it in the realm of baby sleep coaching, and if you find some of the above mentioned facts reasonable, then you might want to give it a try. If so, I am more than happy to help you and your baby get the restorative sleep you both deserve and start colouring your life. See if we are a good fit by booking a free 20 minute qualifying call by clicking the button below.