Sleep problems don't harm your toddler's mental health and development (but can seriously affect parents)

It's not true that normal toddler night waking, or low sleep need in your toddler, or your toddler's excessive night waking cause behavioural or learning or mental health problems, either right now or in later childhood or in later life - though you might have heard this said.

• The research shows that toddlers with low sleep needs and normal night waking develop normally, even though they might always be low sleep need children and adults. Having a low sleep need toddler does pose particular challenges for you as a parent, though. You can find out about caring for a low sleep need toddler here.

• There's no reason to think that the development of toddlers is affected by excessive night waking, in itself. Your toddler will take the sleep she needs over a 24-hour period. But a toddler's very fragmented sleep pattern is not sustainable for parents. In this situation, your little one's body clock needs a reset.

As a parent, you will naturally want to make sure your toddler gets enough sleep to learn and develop and reach her full potential. If someone you trust tells you that your toddler needs a certain amount of sleep to develop normally, and that you should sleep train, you might give that a try, because you want to do the right thing by your child! Parents often experiment with sleep training because it's still the most widely used approach in health systems in the West. Trying things out is definitely a parenting strength.

But research shows that sleep training

• Often increases parental stress or distress about toddler's sleep. You can find out about this here.

• Doesn't improve developmental or mental health outcomes for children.

I don't recommend sleep training, because sleep training often makes life much harder than it needs to be for families. You can find out more here and here.

Excessive night waking, however, is not good for you, nor for your whole family. In The Possums Sleep Program, we work with your toddler's body clock settings so that your toddler returns to normal, more manageable night waking and daytime napping!

Selected references

Butler B, Burdayron R, Mazor-Goder G. The association between infant sleep, cognitive, and psychomotor development: a systematic review. Sleep. 2024:doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae1174.

Makela TE, Peltola MJ, Nieminene P. Night awakening in infancy: developmental stability and longitudinal associations with psychomotor development. Developmental Psychology. 2018;54(7):1208-1218.

Mindell J, Lee C. Sleep, mood, and development in infants.Infant Behaviour and Development. 2015;41:102-107.

Pennestri M-H, Laganiere C, Bouvette-Turcot A-A, Pokhvisneva I, Steiner M, Jeaney MJ, et al. Uninterrupted infant sleep, development, and maternal mood. Pediatrics. 2018;142(6):e20174330.

Price A, Quach J, Wake M, Bittman M, Hiscock H. Cross-sectional sleep thresholds for optimal health and well-being in Australian 4-9-year-olds. Sleep Medicine. 2015:doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2015.1008.1013.

Price AM, Wake M, Ukoumunne OC, Hiscock H. Outcomes at six years of age for children with infant sleep problems: longitudinal community-based study. Sleep Medicine. 2012;13 991-998

Santos IS, Eschevarria P, Tovo-Rodrigues L. Are nocturnal awakenings at age 1 predictive of sleep duration and efficiency at age 6: results from two birth cohorts. Sleep Medicine. 2024:100105.

Thorpe K, Staton S, Sawyer E, Pattinson C, Haden C, Smith S. Napping, development and health from 0 to 5 years: a systematic review. BMJ. 2015;100:615-622.

Wang S-H, Lin K-L, Chen C-L. Sleep problems during early and late infancy: diverse impacts on child developmental trajectories across multiple domains. Sleep Medicine. 2024;115:177-186.