Bedtime fading is a gentle, “no cry” technique for re-aligning your child’s internal clock with the bedtime you desire. You start by asking your child to go to bed late — late enough that your child experiences a powerful physiological urge to sleep. Then, over multiple days, you gradually adjust your child’s schedule, until your child is falling asleep at the earlier time you prefer. Studies suggest that the fading approach is an effective way to overcome a child’s chronic resistance to going to bed. It’s also useful for getting a child ready for a new, earlier schedule. But who is a good candidate for this sleep training method? What makes it different from other sleep training techniques? And what procedures should you follow to maximize success? This Parenting Science guide offers answers — and detailed instructions. Who should try this technique? Bedtime fading has been used on toddlers and older children. It’s been used on typically-developing kids, and on children with developmental disorders. But it isn’t for every family. To be successful, you need to invest some time in learning the concepts, analyzing your child’s current sleep habits, and troubleshooting. You also need to be ready to make some important changes. For example, you’ll need to take steps to reprogram your child’s circadian rhythms. You’ll also need to change any environmental or lifestyle factors that are keeping your child alert at night. And you’ll have to be ready for some short-term difficulties, including setbacks, and daytime tiredness. But if you’re willing to make the effort, you’re likely to see improvements. As I note at the end of this article, studies suggest that bedtime fading is helpful. Kids adapt to earlier bedtimes — falling asleep more easily and quickly. Is bedtime fading a form of sleep training? Does it have anything to with “cry-it-out” techniques? Or the Ferber Method? How is bedtime fading different? Bedtime fading can be considered a form of sleep training, but it’s very distinctive one. First, it’s designed specifically for improving compliance at bedtime. It’s not focused on solving other sleep problems, like frequent night wakings. Second, it doesn’t involve leaving children alone to cry. If that happens, you’re doing it wrong. Third — and most importantly — bedtime fading is different because it addresses the physiological causes of bedtime resistance. “Cry it out” techniques and the Ferber Method are designed merely to make children stay quiet during the night. They do not teach kids how to fall asleep, and they do nothing to ensure that a child will become physiologically drowsy at bedtime. By contrast, bedtime fading is designed to change the brain’s internal clock. It gives children the biological tools they need to fall asleep promptly — without tears or protest. So what are the crucial background concepts? What do parents need to know before beginning the procedure? The bedtime fading technique was developed by two professors of pediatrics, Cathleen Piazza and Wayne Fisher, and it’s based on solid principles of sleep science and learning theory. If you understand this background, the program’s steps will make sense to you, and you’ll be able to tailor the method to the specific needs of your child. Here are the key concepts. 1. To fall asleep, people must experience physiological drowsiness. So if a child isn’t falling asleep promptly at bedtime, this is a sign that the child isn’t drowsy enough. Something is getting in the way. What’s causing the lack of drowsiness? As I explain elsewhere, kids fail to become sleepy for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the most common culprits: The child’s circadian rhythms are out-of-sync with the parent’s preferred bedtime. The child’s “internal clock” isn’t triggering the right brain chemistry as bedtime approaches, so the child isn’t physiologically capable of falling asleep. The child isn’t experiencing enough of what scientists call “sleep pressure,” i.e., too little time has passed since the child last slept, so he or she isn’t capable of feeling drowsy yet. The child is encountering too much psychological stimulation before bedtime; e.g., too much television. The child’s daily experiences have trained him or her to associate bedtime with conflict, stalling, and a failure to fall asleep. As bedtime approaches, the child anticipates trouble, and this anticipation blocks drowsiness. This list isn’t complete, and it’s likely that your child is experiencing more than one of these problems. Indeed, no matter what else is going on, it’s a good bet that your child is affected by the last problem on the list — learned, negative, bedtime associations. The very fact that you’ve been trying to enforce a particular bedtime — trying and failing — suggests that all those nighttime struggles have turned into a kind of nightly routine for your child. Your child has developed a habit of bedtime sleeplessness. But the key point is that something is actively preventing your child from feeling sufficiently drowsy and peaceful at bedtime. If you want your child to learn how to fall asleep easily and promptly, you need to eliminate these barriers. 2. Your child can make a breakthrough if you “reboot” your current routine. You need to get rid of those negative bedtime associations and replace them with positive ones. You need to help your child learn that bedtime is a time of peacefulness, security, and powerful drowsiness. Depending your child’s individual circumstances, this might mean eliminating a late afternoon nap; avoiding potentially disturbing or exciting television programs before bedtime; or addressing your child’s nighttime fears. But whatever else you do, you should immediately stop trying to enforce your current, official bedtime. Instead, you should replace it with a later bedtime — a bedtime late enough that your child will experience powerful, physiological drowsiness. This should make it easy for your child to fall asleep, promptly and without stalling tactics. And once your child has formed these new, positive sleep associations, you’ll be ready to move into the fading phase of training — the phase where you gradually move your child’s bedtime back to the earlier time you prefer. 3. After your child has experienced success with the new, later bedtime, you can use circadian cues — and incremental, nightly shifts — to adapt your child to the earlier bedtime you prefer. If you’ve ever had jet lag, you know how it works. You don’t instantly adjust to an earlier bedtime — not if the bedtime is substantially out-of-sync with our internal clock. But it’s pretty easy to get there if take a series of small steps. Expose yourself to bright light during the day. Avoid artificial light in the evening. And go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night. So this is the approach that parents use in bedtime fading. The gradual pace is crucial, because you don’t want to re-establish those negative sleep associations. If, at any point along the way, your child has trouble falling asleep promptly (within 15 minutes of bedtime being announced), your child is at risk for re-learning that bedtime is difficult, unpleasant, or an occasion for stalling. For this reason, Piazza and Fisher incorporate backward steps in their program. When a child doesn’t adjust to the latest incremental change — i.e., when the child fails to fall asleep promptly after you’ve rescheduled bedtime for 15 minutes earlier — you don’t keep pushing ahead. Instead, you immediately revert to the later bedtime. How do you actually implement bedtime fading? Here’s a step-by-step guide, with examples. 1. Estimate your child’s sleep needs, and set a realistic goal for your child’s bedtime and morning wake-up time. For help, review the recommended sleep times for individuals in your child’s age bracket. In addition, consider how your child actually performs and functions. Some kids need more sleep than their peers do. Others need less. Example (toddler): Sophie is 18 months old. Most children her age need 11-14 hours of total sleep each day, including naps. A few kids thrive on as little as 9-10 hours of total sleep. Some may need up to 15 hours. Based on observation, Sophie’s parents estimate that she needs about 14 hours of sleep to feel cheerful, alert, and healthy. Sophie takes naps each day, accounting for about two hours of sleep. So she needs to sleep…