Gentle Proven Solutions to Help Your Child Sleep Well and Wake Up Happy

This book saved my sanity and totally changed my life. My 8 month old would only sleep when he was held. Day and night. No body was sleeping well. Baby was cranky and I missed spending any time it's my husband. I did not want to do a CIO sleep training. The Shuffle worked wonders for my family. After the first night my baby not only slept in his crib but was so much happier! 1 month later and he takes all his naps in his cribs, goes right down, is nearly sleeping through the night, and my whole family is happy!!

Good Night Sleep Tight contains a great method, and each step is laid out very clearly. Her advice for newborns is excellent. Basically, she says try once in every 24 hours to put them to bed drowsy but awake. That is totally reasonable for a newborn!

The only section that I really don't recommend is her advice for in between newborn and then bigger babies. So basically, approximately ages 3-6 months she lumps in with her older baby approach, and for me they just seem still too young. And yet they need more than what she lays out for the newborn months. However, the rest of the book I can really recommend.

However after 6 months I would not call it gentle. It is actually very firm, while still being compassionate. It is the firmness that makes it work. The overall method for each age range (6-9 months, 9-12 months, 12-18 months, etc.) is basically the same. The other information in the chapter differs, with some of the specifics altered to make them age appropriate.

She calls her approach the "sleep lady shuffle," but it is more generally called "camping out" or “graduated extinction.” Basically, you put them to sleep in a crib, stay right next to the crib 3 nights, then halfway across the room 3 nights, then all the way across the room 3 nights, then in the doorway 3 nights, then in the hallway 3 nights, then you leave them and check every 5 minutes. This method does take a high commitment from the parents to not “give in” and take the child out of the crib and go back to whatever sleep crutch was used before. She recommend sitting in a chair, but I literally camped out by using a camping mattress so I could lay down during night waking episodes; this made it much more realistic for me to stick with it, especially since our son had very frequent night wakings and was a very persistent crier. I felt okay about it because I was right there, but by laying down I knew I could just rest my body and not have to “do” something by picking him up, rocking, nursing, etc.. This method very well may require adaptation to your home arrangement; our rooms are very small, so we omitted the “halfway across the room” step. We also added a sheet over the door at the end and eventually shut the door and talked to him through the door.

Overall, this is my most highly recommended sleep book. The method is firm, so it works successfully. However because it is compassionate and the child can see you are still there while you slowly “wean” your child of your involvement, it sends a more loving message than extinction – even if that message is only for my benefit, I was glad to have it!

Sleep Training. Just mentioning the phrase will send mothers into a frenzy of opinions and leave those of us with sleepless babies even more confused.
Seriously though, this book is awesome. The Sleep Lady not only gives you gentle step-by-step instructions on how to get your baby to sleep well, but gives you detailed instructions on how and why to do so.
Before our daughter was born, we read "Baby Wise", and fully planned on utilizing those methods. While I still do agree with most of the principles in Baby Wise, I found it was more of a list of instructions to follow without much of a how-to guide. So, I wanted to do what the authors were telling me to do, but I couldn't quite get there without a little more detail. That's when we bought the Sleep Lady's book and our nights became much easier! She gives such detailed instructions that we really did feel like we could win the sleep battle with our baby! We still used the guidelines we learned from Baby Wise (Eat-Wake-Sleep), but we meshed it with gentle techniques learned from the Sleep Lady.
After we purchased her book, our little one was sleeping 9-6 at 3 months!
The chapters in this book are arranged by age, and my only complaint is the newborn-5 month section. I felt as though so many sleep developments occurred during that time, that perhaps it would have been better to have a newborn section and then a 3-5 month, for example. Obviously it still worked, but I probably read that section of the book every few days at first.
Enough praise from me, here's a quick story from the other night:
My husband comes home from work (he works mostly with men), and shares that he recommended the Sleep Lady's book to a friend before his friend's son was born. Then, once his friend came back from paternity leave, he gave my husband a huge high five and said "Thanks so much for the sleep lady book! It is awesome!"
So there you have it, mom and dads agree, this is the book to buy!
Bottom line: Sleep is so important for mom, dad and baby, buy this book and everyone will be happy!

I was not interested in using cry-it-out techniques for sleep training so I decided to check out this book after a friend recommended it. The sleep shuffle technique is wonderful and non-stressful. It worked really well. Now when my baby hits a sleep regression, I can do a quick version of the shuffle and he gets back on track. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a gentle sleep training method that works.

Love her timeline (dropping night feeding around 8-12 weeks) and her forgiving spirit (if you've already missed that window, all is not lost, and you're not an idiot parent). I wish she'd be a little more explicit with her language sometimes. She rarely uses terms like 'cry it out,' but it is implied by statements like, 'let the baby work it out himself.' For someone not coming from a 'cry it out' approach, they might miss some of her helpful guidance because it is not direct enough.

This book was recommended by my daughter-in-law because she found it so helpful. I purchased it for my daughter because she's expecting her first child. I'll be giving it to her this weekend. Thank you for your fast delivery!

I work with infants/toddlers, and have recommended this book to many of my clients, however admittedly, I had never read it. After a brief vacation for me, away from my family, my typically good sleeper fell apart. she couldn't fall asleep or stay asleep. I read the book, focusing on the steps for a 2- 1/2 year old. I had tried the techniques, but appreciated the detailed tips on how to really use the system. The book was quite helpful!!!!! It's a straight forward, gentle approach. The book is well written, easy-to-read, and includes several "real life" stories, which I always enjoy. I will recommend this book to others, and use it if/when we struggle with our other children!

I have read everything, from Ferber to the No-Cry Sleep Solution. My baby was 9 months old and I thought I was going to die from exhaustion before I found this book. At last, advice for those of us who aren't willing to let our baby cry alone in a dark room for an hour - but who are committed to getting our babies to sleep through the night before they start pre-school!

Very well-organized, easy to follow, caring, practical.

This book came highly recommended after my daughter was waking up at least every 2 hours at 5 months old. She was obviously sleep deprived, as was I (and my husband). I was so excited when the book finally arrived and read the whole thing in a day. When I tried the "sleep lady shuffle" it just infuriated her more that I was right in the room with her and was not picking her up, not to mention was emotionally draining for me listening to her scream right next to me. This method just wasn't for us. It's not to say that it won't work for other's though. I just needed something that would have faster results. We ended up doing cry it out with checks (at 5 min, 10 min, 15, 20, etc.), which I think is very similar to the "shuffle" in that the child still knows you are there, but learns to self soothe on own. My daughter was putting herself to sleep with NO tears after 4 nights of our method.
Even though this method wasn't for us, it did have some great information about sleep habits and cycles in children that I found very helpful.

So my child was a serious bedsharing boy. He didn't necessarily need to be breastfed, but he wanted to be held. All. Night. Long. PLUS getting him down for the night was taking an hour minimum! I tried the no cry sleep solution, but it was too gentle I guess. It just didn't work (although I did add a bit of that knowledge into this).

First of all, if you're anything like me, you read up online and decided this was just a fancy way of crying it out. WRONG and I'll tell you why. My child cried for maybe 5 minutes the first night. I was right there beside him and was able to soothe him so he didn't cry too hard. I've had to pick him up a couple times if he cries hysterically, but it's honestly not that often at all. I just wish I had read this book sooner, because once baby can stand up everything gets so much more complicated.

Ok, so the tough part is the first night. It royally sucks. It took my baby 2 hrs to fall asleep. BUT that was cut in half the next day and now (4 days into it) it takes anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. The progress were making is awesome and he is spending the whole night in his crib. It's amazing!

I'm positive I already reviewed this book, but for some reason it disappeared. Anyways, bottum line is..if you follow the techniques, this book WORKS. Your baby will be sleeping through the night guranteed! I knew absolutely NOTHING about babies, had no experience whatsoever, and since I was a bit of an insomniac I really wanted to salvage any sleep I could get. So since my daughter was two weeks old, I started the techniques. At first it's simple stuff: expose her to daylight in the daytime, etc. After a few weeks/months you learn to put her down, "drowsy but awake." That way your baby will LEARN to eventually sleep on her own. I did this all by myself, so it's not rocket science. My husband actually doubted the book saying it was nonsense, but now he's a believer! I recently recommended this to a friend of mine after I went to her house for a playdate. Her kids were out of control and cranky. That's because she put them down for bedtime at 11pm and she wondered why they were up at 5 am! She rocked and rocked her 10 month old in a noisy room, full of light and she wondered why the baby was up after a 20 minute nap. The baby needs ROUTINE, QUIET and a dark room. Do yourself a favor and buy this book! What are you waiting for?!

I bought this book after realizing the many mistakes I'd made with my second son while trying to get him to sleep through the night. I was too quick to leap out of bed and nurse him because I didn't want him to wake up my 3 year old son or my husband. I was SO exhausted from getting up 2-3 times a night to nurse my 6 month old and I had no willpower or brain power to stick with any program. I'd read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby, the Baby Whisperer and Babywise and gained a lot from them with my first child. This book helped me to pull together all the good information and apply a process to what I needed to do. I was encouraged by Kim's tips and was able to reduce night feedings to just one instead of 3. He and I both are sleeping and napping much better and I'm glad to say that this worked. After 4 weeks, he just slept 11 hours overnight for the first time! I also liked the format of the book arranged by age.

This book is truly amazing. Before it, our son was walking up at least once a night and would not go to sleep without being nursed. I guess we were spoiled because prior to moving, he learned to sleep through the night on his own. But since we moved, we just couldn't get him back to that.

She allows you to adapt her techniques to your situation, so you don't feel like it's do or die by the method. We had previously tried the "cry it out" method and just couldn't stomach leaving a baby in a room to cry all alone. So this was a perfect compromise...you're there so he sees that you're supporting him and you see that he's fine.

And as the book is separated by age, as he is getting older, I go back and read the section for his age bracket so that I know what to expect or what to look for or even just to be assured that he's behaving "normally".

I have recommended this book to so many people and they, in turn, can't believe the outcome and recommend it to others. GET THIS BOOK!!!

This book is well written with lots of examples. I'm still in the process of going through the Sleep Lady Shuffle. So far, following the directions in this book has yielded mixed results; my child now sleeps more at night but now refuses to nap during naptime even though he can't function the entire day without it. I'm hoping that this improves with time.

I cannot say enough good things about this book!! I had purchased another sleep book before this, the no cry solution and it just wasn't getting us where we wanted to be. I really like how detailed this is, and that it ranges from newborns all the way through the toddler years. It has suggestions for traveling, illness and just about anything else that will throw off your baby's sleep schedule and how to deal with it. My son is 14 mos and we began this when he was about 5 months and he is a champion sleeper! He has been sleeping 11 hours a night since we began this, and I couldn't be happier. I hated having to choose between letting him "cry it out" alone, or rocking to sleep. This is the perfect middle ground where he's allowed to cry some, because he has to in order to learn to soothe himself, but hes not left alone to feel abandoned either. I recommend this to all new moms that I know, and am having my second child in a few months and will for sure begin this program from her birth!!!

This book is wonderful. We used her methods twice with on our son. We first used them when he was 7 months old and got him only waking up once per night (I couldn't take it down to no wakings because I was convinced he needed a feeding). After a terrible illness and teething, we had to retrain him with these methods. He learned them more quickly the second time, and we got it down to no feedings.

I was absolutely opposed to CIO and couldn't tolerate my son's tears. I fed him to sleep, and was exhausted from his 7 straight months of waking every few hours. Eventually I decided something had to give and enlisted my husband, who soothed our son when I could not emotionally take it and knew I could give in and feed. We eventually got a system that worked for all of us. He is now sleeping through the night successfully - thank goodness for this book!

This book covers birth to 5 years. Not only does it lay out a specific plan, but practically as soon as I have a question the author clearly answers it!

I could not recommend this book more!

This sleep book is wonderful!!!! I have a little boy who figured out the system in 2 days, which is totally rare, but this book has been a constant go to for so many other reasons as well. It tells you how much the average baby sleeps at all stages up to 5 years. It also gives you sample schedules to follow for feedings, nap times, etc. There are also wonderfully helpful tips in there for different issues including sickness, teething, and milestones. I love this book and have made all my pregnant friends go out and buy it!

Ferber is better and not nearly as barbaric as people claim. Everybaby is different but IMO ripping the bandaid off and keeping the crying time as short as possible is much better than this graduated prolonged method. This is more torture than Ferber or full extinction. PLUS Ferber is a Neurologist and a Medical EXPERT and director of pediatric sleep at Harvard. I highly suggest reading ALL of ferber's book before sleep training. Sleep training is not always a quick fix.

All of that being said, the 3 day camp out is probably good if you have been co-sleeping. Other than that figure out what the issues are with your baby and fix them one by one.

As a new Grandma-Nana of 2 granddaughters, I sent copies of "Good Night, Sleep Tight" to our daughter and daughter-in-law.
They have each struggled to find their baby's way of calming for sleep! They report the book is encouraging them in their quest for gentle sleep solutions!

In the attempt to sleep training my very active daughter I've read several baby sleep books. This one is the most complete I've read. It covers a lot of ground and scenarios. It provides real examples and sample schedules. I followed many of the advices in this book and my 12mo daughter now sleeps more than 11 hr at night and more than 1 hr during the day getting close to the desired 13 hrs. From ferberization to shuffling I used a lot of tips from this book and it is the only one I ended up buying and have with me for consultations. Other books I read from the local library and returned them.

This book is an awesome tool for any mothers (new, mothers of several, etc). My baby is 5 months old now and sleeping through the night, thank heavens. Honestly, I pull this book out a couple of times a month to see if we are on track and suggestions for getting back on track. There is a lot of information about breastfeeding and table feeding in here too, much that I found more helpful even than books and articles specifically for feeding. My husband is used to me leading a now here and there, "read the section in chapter 4 on 5 month olds" etc. I will say, the book looks daunting at first, but you only read a little at a time, depending where you are, for example, I'm not even halfway through because much of the book is about much older children our scenarios I tangent even dreamed of yet like multiple children.

West provides great guidance. She is both instructive and open for you to make the process work for our family. I highly suggest this book to anyone struggling to find a sleep routine for their child!

Parents need to be aware of what is really required for happy and healthy children. This book details the importance of proper sleep and rest for a child'd healthy development. Very good book and if you follow and are persistent, both child and parent reap the rewards. You in your bed, them in theirs, all night, only to wake up refreshed and happy. Who could ask for more?!

As a mother who returned to work and struggled with her milk supply I don't think this book really addressed the issues of moms who work. My bg flip flopped when I went to work. She barely ate during the day time and ate like crazy at night. I struggled to pump enough during the day and my lactation consultant encouraged me to feed her during the night to keep my supply going. I mostly found this book frustrating and it made me feel like I was doing something wrong due to the day night flip flop. I don't think it makes considerations for these sort of issue.

This was one of my LEAST favorite sleep books. And we went through a LOT of them. I didn't like that she really only dedicates less than a paragraph to describing her technique, but then referred to said technique throughout the whole book. As a sleep deprived new mom, I really wanted something step-by-step spelled out for me in terms I could understand at all odd hours of the night, but instead I was left second-guessing and shuffling through the book repeatedly trying to find some hidden secret outline that wasn't there.

The ideas are great, explanations super convincing but I had a hard time following from the 4th night. I'm gonna try again, but let me tell you, this is something you can't do alone (as I am) you'll need a LOT of support and help to let you go through it without falling apart.

Book is kind of repetitive, but I guess that helps the reader not have to go back to a certain chapter each time, they can just read the appropiate chapter and the advice is re-written. Found the small "example scenerios" very informative and easy to relate to. I took some of Ms. Wests' advice and tailored it to my own situation, which I would advise, as not every child is the same and she says that. After 2 nights of "crying it out" we could not take it anymore and tried the sleep lady shuffle....it worked! Like I said, we have modified it to suit us, but the premise is still the same. The results were a much less stressful nap and bedtime for our little one and us. When we went overseas at nine months, I followed her advice for traveling which helped a lot with difficult in-laws... A good reference book for sure!

I bought this book to help with sleep problems our 3 month old was having. We got in the habit of rocking her to sleep or nursing her to sleep and were trying to break her of the habit. She'd fall asleep just fine in our arms but once she hit the crib she'd wake up and cry. I found the chapters in the book that addressed this age group to be lacking and at times contradicting. She says infants of this age need a bedtime routine but then also states they are too young to understand a routine until they are 4 months old. She tells you to put the baby down "drowsy but awake" and makes the assumption that they will simply drift off to sleep. Her advice for if they start to cry is to pat and "shhhh" them until they go back to sleep. Well the problem is that the baby will not always go down "drowsy but awake". Our baby would perk right up once we put her in the crib, not simply drift off to sleep. Furthermore, "shhh", pat did nothing to help her drift off to sleep and simply resulted in spending hours leaning over the crib while she cried. No one was getting any sleep and the book offered no advice on what to do when "drowsy but awake" didn't work. We ended up consulting our pediatrician who advocates Ferber. We started on night one last night and our daughter was able to put herself to sleep for the first time in the history of her life. Yes there was crying, but there wasn't anymore than with this book and the results were immediate. Perhaps this book offers better advice for an older child, but none of us can wait 4 or 5 months to get some sleep, we needed help now.

This book has helped our family to function again. My 11 month old now sleeps through the night by herself, puts herself to sleep for both naps and bed in 5 min or less. If you follow the instructions it can make a HUGE difference for your family.

This book offers very constructive guidelines for helping your infant sleep through the night and during the day. The first day after our baby slept through the night we were all in such a good mood it felt like a holiday for all of us. Nothing rigid here. She just gives you information to help you understand the hurdles and suggestions for how to get around them. Highly recommended.

As a mom and a lactation consultant, I have found this book "mom friendly" and "breastfeeding friendly". I typically don't write reviews; however, the more I work with moms who had read bayberries (ME INCLUDED!!), the more I see the need for this book. I appreciate the approach Kim West takes to breastfeeding and sleeping. She does not diminish co-sleeping (which I fully support- trust me, I did not use to previous to having children.... and being a nurse). I also did not co-sleep, but looking back I can see the enormous benefits of it. Please take a moment to read this book. It's very easy to understand and you don't have to read the entire book to help your situation (chapters separated by age). She also has a very helpful youtube and Facebook account. I don't see it being necessary to hire her as a sleep couch; however, if you are able to do this, I'm sure it would be helpful.

I had borrowed this book from the library some time ago and thought it had good tips. A modified sleep shuffle helped my little one. After some new sleep issues, I wanted to quickly reference this book so I purchased the kindle copy. To my dismay, there is no table of contents which makes it really hard to navigate to the sections I want to read

At 7 months, my infant was still having difficulty sleeping through the night. This book identified my babies personality perfectly and offered helpful information on sleep habits and facts that helped my husband and I form a sleep routine for our daughter. She now regularly sleeps through the night. We are all now getting a good nights sleep!

At 7 months, my infant was still having difficulty sleeping through the night. This book identified my babies personality perfectly and offered helpful information on sleep habits and facts that helped my husband and I form a sleep routine for our daughter. She now regularly sleeps through the night. We are all now getting a good nights sleep!

We went through a sleep regression with our daughter a couple times, and a bad one when we moved to a new home. This book was very helpful- I've lent it to numerous friends and recommended to a lot of mommies out there. Worth it.

I think the book contains very valued information about babies, and sleep in general. I would not simple label Kim West's method as an "supervised-cry-it-out", that may be how some reader see it. I do almost everything she recommends, without the crying part. With two older kids sleeping at night I just can't let my 8 month old cry. And I wouldn't want to, because once he is mad, if it even would go that far, he would not go to sleep for the next hours anyway. It is interesting how much he is influenced by all her other techniques though. The night rime rituals, the lovey, and he does not seem to mind so much, that I place him in his crib drowsy but awake. If he is still too awake, then he gets up and walks around in his crib getting mischievious, but then I take him back out right away and start all over. So I adjust the recommendations from the book to my baby/situation and this works fine. She also wrote a chapter of medical problems and how to wirk with these. Since we still have GERD, this is great too. Everything she wrote about that is very well researched, and it helps that she is validating the trouble that GERD can cause your baby at night. So, overall I love the book. You can not expect miracles anyway. At the end of the day, it is up to you, and your little one.

Love the info on sleep basics. Wish I had followed more of the advice for my son's infant days. Sleep lady shuffle worked like a charm to transition out of nursing to sleep. In the end, though you have to find a system that works for you and your child.

There is so much great information in this book! I love that this book doesn't imply that one method fits all children and allows for a lot of "wiggle room". I have started the Shuffle with my 2.5 yo, and it could not be going better! There hasn't been one tear out if her eyes. She was bounced to sleep for 2 years prior to doing this. I am quite pleased with how effective the shuffle is.

My 15 month old had been sleeping pretty good (as far as babies go) until she suddenly decided she would only go to sleep if someone held her or she was in our bed. Nobody was sleeping after 2 weeks of this. I found this book online and first borrowed it from the library. I didn't want to spend money on something that wouldn't work. I used the techniques and within a month we have our good sleeper back! I decided to buy the book as it does describe different situations that may affect sleep and how to address them. The book is for birth to six. It's a keeper! I'm recommending it to all my friends with children.

Amazing book! Highly recommend it... My son became a poor "sleeper" since 4 months and by 8 months I had enough, and figured something had to be done. This book taught me to get did of my sons sleeping crutches and by the second night he only woke up once! This book teaches basic principles to encourage/teach your child to sleep through the night. It's a much gentler approach than the "cry it out method".