Data about sleeping through the night

[pikapoo]

Thread also on AIBU - please do not reply here if you have already responded

I know that all babies are different etc etc but am really curious as to whether there is a noticeable correlation (not necessarily causation, mind) between 'sleeping through the night' and various potential factors. I spent months trying to get DS to sleep through, with a lot of anecdotal input from friends and family. Would really like to put some numbers and %%% against anecdotal data (you can tell it's been awhile since I went on mat leave from my numbers-based job…)

WIBU to ask all you lovely people to reply quickly and simply to the following few questions? At every milestone of 100 responses, I will post a results update! And may even throw in a sad graph or two

1. age at which your DC started sleeping through reliably (slept through means no dream feed and no night feeds, only occasional night waking when teething/unwell). If your DC is not yet sleeping through, please state current age.

2. gender of DC

When DC started sleeping through, were they (or, if not yet sleeping through, are they):
3) breastfed, formula fed, or combination?
4) cosleeping (same bed), side-sleeping (same room), or sleeping in their own room?
5) using a dummy to fall asleep? (If yes, please specify whether dummy kept in overnight)

6. was it preceded by night time sleep training (including weaning off night feeds)? (If yes, please specify briefly)

7. any other comments

Disclaimer - this isn't meant to be a scientific survey. I'm aware that sleep training and sleeping through the night are pressure points for many parents... but to facilitate my collation and analysis of the responses, please do not start a debate on this thread.

Thanks!

sleeping through the night

Means a million different things to different people.

Anything from

• 5 hours unbroken
• 11pm-7am without wakes
• 11-7 broken but no feeds
• 12 hours no feeds
• 12 hours no resettled

It is also the case that there will be several months between the first night 'sleeping thro' (in any way you define that) of it being inconsistent and becoming gradually more consistant.

Therefore as well as the definition having no clear definition, the time is also widely open to interpretation.

For someone interested in numbers and data, I am sorry to say I am unimpressed with your attempt here.

I agree that the definition is not sufficiently nuanced and does not allow for all possible interpretations.

Which is why this is not a scientific survey, and is on a Mumsnet user thread. If we did want to do the whole hog then the definitions caveats and footnotes could fill the entire thread before anyone actually responds. The list of questions would also need to quadruple (for instance I did not include the food weaning line of enquiry).

I'm certainly not doing this to impress anyone!

1. Five months, when we dropped the dream feed at 10pm. So she then was doing about 8pm to 6.30am. She first started sleeping for longer periods at two weeks when she did six hours and did at least six hours every night from six weeks old.

2. Female

3. Combination - 50/50 BF/FF, but I've never used formula at night.

4. Side sleeping

5. No dummy

6. No sleep training, but I did follow the advice in French children don't throw food and paused and watched her each time she began to stir rather than picking her straight up to feed at the smallest grunt.This seemed to help her connect sleep cycles early on

Ds has been sleeping through from about 9 weeks. This is 7pm- anywhere between 5:30-7am. He's 12 weeks now so has been about a month and I think we've only had twice where he's woken in the night.
He's breast fed apart from his 7pm bottle which is formula and definitely how he sleeps through! He's in his own room, swaddled and white noise but no dummy (he wouldn't take one).
No sleep training - he just dropped the night feeds one by one himself. He does have silent reflux and is incredibly active and fidgety during the day and often v tense which I think tires him out!

21 months and still not sleeping through, she's a little monster

1. 10 months (not sleeping through reliably although one twin has done so twice - so close!)

2. female (x2)

3. Ebf to 6 months. Now on family food and still breastfeeding constantly

4. sidesleeping in separate cots

5. yes both have a dummy which is kept in until deepsleep when they spit it out and I reinsert to settle.

6. haven't sleep trained but have started to put down awake rather than feed to sleep in a vain attempt to get better sleep out of them!

7-7 with a dream feed at 10 weeks
Dreamfeed dropped at 18 weeks
Little girl
Moved into her own room at 4 months
No dummy

Other comments: We had a sleep consultant and maternity nurse

5 months (6pm-7am), girl, FF, own bed in parents room (sleepyhead in cot), yes to dummy but often fell out overnight, no sleep training of any kind.

slept through 5 hours, 7pm - midnight from about a year, slept through the whole night, 8 hours unbroken sleep from about age 4. Boy, own room at 18 months old, slept with me, in my bed or in cot beside my bed before that. never had a dummy. BF

1. still not sleeping through - he's one. We've just cut out his night feeds
2. boy
3. he was breast fed til 6 months, then ff. now on cows milk.
4. sleeping in own room
5. yes he has a dummy all night
6. we sleep trained (controlled crying) at 6 months to get him to self settle and it worked in that he goes straight off to sleep now and will do one long stretch a night (about 7 hours), but he still doesn't "sleep through". He usually goes to bed at 6.30 and wakes at 9.30 for a bottle. Then he wakes again at about 4.30/5 wanting another bottle. We've just cut the night feeds.

1. not sleeping through - 14 months
2. female
3. breastfed
4. cosleeping
5. no dummy
6. no sleep training
7. never slept longer than 4 hours in a row, normally wakes every 2 hours

18 months,sleeping through ish from 7 months. Female. Co-sleeping. Same bed. Stirs and latches on through out the night. No wide awake time. Breastfed. No dummy.

1. 5 weeks sleeping through with no wakes 11-7am got longer from that date not a one off.

2. female

3. mixed but more formula. After 2 months fully formula.

4. side sleeping. Slept longer in own room from 3 months

5. yes and kept in

6. no dropped feed at 3 am on their own

7. the sleeping through coincided with her rolling over on her stomach on her own. We were advised to let her if she rolled herself over.

18m very rarely sleeps through. Goes down well and settles but often wakes through the night sometimes settles back off quickly other times not.

Female

Formula fed. Now on adult food and cows milk.

Side sleeping still in our room.

Has dummy but looses it through the night.

Never done sleep training

1. reliably sleeping through 7.30pm -6.30 am from 8 months old

2. boy

3. was breastfed till 7 months, then moved to formula

4. had been in own room since 5.5 months

5. never had a dummy

6. was weaned off all night feeds ate 6 months as he ate loads of food so I was confident he wasn't waking hungry

7. other comment - we had a blip at around 10 months for a week, at this point we started leaving him to cry as he was very aware that after so long he'd be allowed in our bed for the rest of the night. It took 3 nights of cc and he's slept through every night since. Now 15 months

1. dd 7 months, ds 12 months but still up about once a week.

2. one of each

3. dd Ebf to 4 months then ff. ds ebf 6 weeks then mixed until 8 months.

4. both Moses basket in our room until 6 months then own room in a cot.

5. ds took a dummy very briefly until about 6mo

6. night weaned dd at 7 months, ds 12 months.

1. 18 weeks
2. Boy
3. Formula fed from birth.
4. Sleeping in his cot in our room.
5. Dummy to sleep but taken out when asleep.
6. No sleeping training or night weaning.
7. From 9 weeks got dream feed at 10.30pm and slept til 7am. At 17 weeks had a late last feed before bed so didn't wake for dream feed and he didn't wake either so upped bottle to 4x8oz instead of 5x7oz and took a few days of waking at 6am before back to 7am waking. Two tomorrow and still a great sleeper.

Dc1 female - slept through with dreamfeed at around 4.5 months after lots of sleep training. No dummy etc, got herself off to sleep.. dropped dreamfeed around 6.5 mths. Formula fed.

Dc2 male, gentle consistent self soothimg from very early as quick to fall asleep. Slept through from 9 weeks. And generally just very good at sleeping without fuss. Sucks his fingers, no dummy. Formula fed.

1. 2 (pretty much when she turned 2)

2. female

When DC started sleeping through, were they (or, if not yet sleeping through, are they):
3) breastfed
4) sleeping in their own room
5) no dummy

6. no sleep training

7. she's still a bugger to get to sleep but once asleep she will almost always sleep brought (age 2.5)

1. 18 months
2. male
3. No longer bf (had been exclusively to 6 months and then until about 11/12 months - went straight to cows milk
4. Own room
5. No
6. Various approaches tried! inc No Cry Sleep Solution (lots of pat/shussh in cot); weaning off night feeds was much earlier; changing daytime sleep pattern ... and a short attempt at CC (unsuccessful - at ?? about 1 year)
7. At 13 he sleeps brilliantly ;-)

And for second child:

1. 18 months
2. female
3. bf only to about 5 months, then in combo until 1
4. Started in own cot; co-slept if woke in night.
5. no
6. Nothing specific that I recall
7. dd was a much more settled sleeper - went to sleep easily; woke up in a good mood (unlike ds) - but still didn't sleep through in your terms. Even now she occasionally comes in with me if feeling poorly/scared (11). I adored co-sleeping with her.

1. well, as FATE says, this is so open to interpretation, I don't view my son as 'sleeping through' yet, I would view him as sleeping through when he's going from 8-8 and. It waking for a feed and not needing settling. But I am aware lots of people would say he sleeps through. For about 2 months (he's 7.5 months now), he has slept from 8pm-6am then has one feed and goes back down until 8am.
2. male

When DC started sleeping through, were they (or, if not yet sleeping through, are they):
3) breastfed, formula fed, or combination? We had just made the switch to formula when he started sleeping 10 hours.
4) cosleeping (same bed), side-sleeping (same room), or sleeping in their own room? Own room
5) using a dummy to fall asleep? (If yes, please specify whether dummy kept in overnight) no - but if he does ever start to wake before 10 hours I sometimes give him a dummy which works to prolong his sleep

6. was it preceded by night time sleep training (including weaning off night feeds)? (If yes, please specify briefly)

Well DS slept through for the first time last night - 6.30-5.30.

1. still not sleeping through regularly, though did sleep through once , now 2y7m
2. boy
3. breastfed to 2y5m, now fully weaned
4. all of the options at some point, now sleeping in his own room.
5. no, never used a dummy
6. we night weaned about 1y11m. Following very gradual retreat he now falls asleep in his own bed on his own, but still wakes 1-4 times a night.
7. arrrrgggghhhhh!