People Love Fighting About Sleep Training. The Evidence for It Is Nuanced—but Very Clear on One Point.

Science The controversial method for getting babies to sleep has one clear—and very important—benefit. May 03, 20265:45 AM Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Sleep is a Big Deal to new parents. I’m writing this with a 4-month-old asleep on my chest. She’s sleeping well right at this exact moment—but today she woke up every hour from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., at which point we all had to get up to get ready for the day. And she’s not even at the low end of sleeping practices for a baby her age: She sometimes manages to sleep five hours in a row. I would do anything for this tiny creature, but it’s not great for her to wake up so much. And at a certain point, you get over the sleep-deprivation feeling of tiny ants biting the inside of your skull. Sleep is, as the scientists say, physiologically necessary. Without sleep, most of your body starts falling apart. There’s even evidence that a baby who refuses to sleep can make you depressed, something that, if you know enough parents or have kids yourself you