The Top 10 Sleep Mistakes Parents Make

And if your little one is getting up way too early (before 6 a.m.)، it could be a sign that your child is going to bed too late، so try putting them to bed 30 minutes or even an hour earlier. But some little ones are just early birds and tend to wake up early.

Making Sleep Decisions in the Middle of the Night

Let's face it: It's hard to make wise decisions at 2 a.m. And those middle-of-the-night wakings are usually when parents make their biggest sleep mistakes. According to West، one of the biggest is reactive co-sleeping. "This is when a family co-sleeps because it's the only way to get their child to sleep، not because they've made a decision to co-sleep as a family،" says West.

This is also the time when sleep crutches are relied upon. "Parents inadvertently create more crying by giving up and resorting to their original sleep crutch after a certain amount of time،" says West. "For example، 'I let him cry for 30 minutes and then got him out and rocked him to sleep because I couldn't take it anymore.'"

In these cases، the baby learns that if they cry، you'll eventually give them what they want، and you'll have to do it again and again when they wake up throughout the night.

When you get to the point of sleep deprivation where you feel you're not making good sleep decisions for your child، ask for help. Having someone else get up in the middle of the night occasionally will give you the chance to get some sleep، ensuring that you're making the best choices when it's your time to wake up!

Not Being on the Same Page

"Parents must be a united front when it comes to improving their child's sleep،" says West. "You need to agree on what tactic you're going to use to help your child learn to self-soothe and get a good night's rest. It's OK for your routines to be slightly different، but the big decisions need to be agreed upon in advance."

Those decisions include what time your baby needs to go to sleep and whether you're going to rely on any sleep crutches to get them to sleep. That means one parent can't decide that rocking the baby to sleep is OK if the other parent doesn't want to do it at bedtime and throughout the night.