Anybody used the book "The 90 Minute Sleep Program"?

[abigail_b]

I recently got this book, and it seems to make sense to me. No advocating any crying it out or anything. Her basic concept is that babies have a 90 minute biological cycle that allows them only to be awake for 90 minutes at a time. She calls her program N.A.P.S= Note when your baby awakens, Add 90 minutes, Play and pursue other activities with your baby, Soothe your baby to sleep. She argues that scheduling your baby based on their own natural rhythms - not the clock or your convenience--sets the foundation for healthy sleep habits, which I agree with.

She is very convincing about the 90 minute thing basically being programmed into all human beings...she is a PhD whose career is sleep research...she is also a mother of 2.

But my 8 week baby can often not stay awake for the full 90 minutes...does anyone else have this same experience? In the book she definitely says not to try and keep them awake of they are showing their sleep signals, but mostly she is writing from the point of view that most parents will think 90 minutes is too short of a time, so doesn't much address babies who can't stay awake that long.

Anyway, my 2 month old can often only stay awake for an hour at a time...is this "normal"?

Thanks!

[Aufilia]

I haven't read the book but it sounds similar to the "2 hour rule" which I have read in other books. We did use the "2 hour rule" with DD (always back to sleep within 2 hours of waking) and it worked very well with her. I think the gist is that you don't want them up MORE THAN the time limit; less is perfectly ok. DD was often up less than 2 hours... in fact, for many months she would wake up at 6am (when I got up) and be down for her first nap about 7am (when I left for work). DS currently doesn't like to be awake more than about 30-45 minutes max between sleeps, and if he is he seems unhappy about it.

[kamane18]

At 8 weeks my DS (and my DD prior) had a hard time staying awake more than an hour without getting overtired. By 3 months that was more like 1.5 hours and closer to 2 hours around 4 months. Like PP said, it's more to try to not go over the 1.5 (or 2 hour) mark, under is fine. And of course, age changes things too!

[gracemamma]

Hi Abigail,
I can't tell you what's normal or not because I'm pretty new to mamahood-LO is 4 mos. However, I have used that book & found it useful. The charting helped demonstrate that DD was missing alot of sleep & got me very organized for protecting her naps. Once I paid attention, she started napping every 90 minutes on the dot-amazing. Now she can go up to 2 hrs but I try to respect the 90 min window for outings etc. I know others with similar experiences.
That said, it sounds like your baby has a 60 min window not a 90 min one- at least for now. I would say follow your baby as you both know baby's needs better than any author.
I'll also note that some of the self-soothing talk later in the book did seem a little CIO to me but I still found the book very useful.
Good luck with your LO!

[seafox]

Originally Posted by kamane18

At 8 weeks my DS (and my DD prior) had a hard time staying awake more than an hour without getting overtired. By 3 months that was more like 1.5 hours and closer to 2 hours around 4 months. Like PP said, it's more to try to not go over the 1.5 (or 2 hour) mark, under is fine. And of course, age changes things too!

this was true for us as well. DS was like clockwork - he'd have 45min naps and couldn't be awake for more than 45min w/out getting fussy. From 2 months - 3.5 months I'd say a large part of the day was putting him to sleep. Now he can be awake for 2-3 hours w/out issue.

we'd note when he awoke, and after 45min try putting him back to sleep - it would take a while though. If I walked him to sleep he could stay awake for longer then if he wasn't being worn. But he also didn't tolerate being worn w/out walking outside, so wearing him inside the house didn't work so well - which would have been convenient! That being said, he still only slept about 13 hours total a day, so I guess a lot of the day we were trying to get him to sleep.

[HeddyBee]

That's the only sleep book I have ever found useful! I continue to rely on the sleep/wake cycle with my 13-month-old. I usually put her down for a nap about 3 hrs after she wakes up. She can stay awake for 6 to 7.5 hours after her midday nap, so the 90-minute alertness cycle is still there, just multiplied by a factor of 3 or 4. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, I comfort myself with the thought that it won't be more than 90 minutes, most likely.

I think with very young infants, the author notes that alertness cycles may not be perfectly timed -- they are still emerging. Sleepy signals are most useful (in addition to keeping an eye on the 90-minute intervals).

[abigail_b]

Thanks for the replies everyone! With my son he could stay awake for 2 hour streches by this time, so it seemed odd to me that she can't even stay awake for an hour...anyway, I guess as with everything else with babies there is no "normal"!

I haven't read the whole book yet- so I haven't gotten to the "self soothing" section, if there is any CIO obviously I will ignore that part!

[sunshynbaby]

I think it depends on the baby and their age. DS could only do 60-90 minutes in the beginning up to maybe 8 weeks, but now he can go 2-3 hours sometimes before he gets cranky and wants to sleep.