Night waking, sleep-wake organization, and self-soothing in the first yearof life

Few objective data are available regarding infants' night waking behaviors and the development of self-soothing during the first year of life. This cr oss-sectional study examined 80 infants in one of four age groups (3, 6, 9, or 12 mo) for four nights by using videosomnography to code nighttime awak enings and parent-child interactions. A large degree of variability was obs erved in parents' putting the infant to bed awake or asleep and in respondi ng to vocalizations after nighttime awakenings. Most infants woke during th e night at all ages observed. Younger infants tended to require parental in tervention at night to return to sleep, whereas older infants exhibited a g reater proportion of self-soothing after nighttime awakenings. However, eve n in the 12-month-old group, 50% of infants typically required parental int ervention to get back to sleep after waking. Results emphasize the individu al and contextual factors that effect the development of self-soothing beha vior during the first year of life.