This is a set of several e-mail questions/answers back and forth between myself and EP. I asked if I may share the information with the message board and she said certainly:
>Jennifer:
>Hi, I… am noticing an odd trend in that many parents (such as myself)
>are asking what to do about their baby who wakes up 30mins to 1 hour
>after bedtime, even with a great bedtime routine etc. Could there be
>some reason for this, that could be explained based on sleep patterns
>or sleep maturity or something?
>
>EP:
>Hi Jennifer,
>Nice to hear from you and very kind of you to be looking for answers
>for your friends. What you are seeing is a normal sleep-cycle
>process. All human beings go through sleep cycles throughout the
>night. Each cycle takes between 90 and 110 minutes. The first two
>phases of the cycle take 30-60 minutes and children in the early
>stages of sleep are very easily awakened. Remember the story from
>NCSS about finding yourself on the kitchen floor? That's the sleep-
>association thing. A baby who is parented to sleep will awake during
>a usual sleep-cycle change will wake looking for
>Mommy/Daddy/breastfeeding/rocking/pacifier, etc. If the baby wakes
>fully at this time than instead of going on to deeper sleep he wakes
>up and gets a "second wind" (as if it were a nice nap!) and may be
>awake for awhile until he goes through the sleep cycle process
>again...
>
>Jennifer:
>I hadn't thought of checking to see how these different Moms are
>putting their children to sleep. If they are put down awake then
>this works towards solving the problem? Could there still be babies
>who even though they were put down awake would like to see Mom or Dad
>if they wake up during a sleep cycle?
>
>EP:
>,,,,,,,,, I've discovered that very few babies are actually put to
>bed all alone and "awake" (which is a natural thing) and most are
>parented into at least that first stage of drowsy/lightest sleep. The
>baby/toddler/preschooler who can give Mommy & Daddy a kiss and go off
>to bed alone is rare. But, even THAT child will wake up between
>cycles (all human beings do) and may become
>scared/loney/hungry/uncomfortable and the natural response is to look
>for a parent to help. Even good sleepers may suddenly wake up when
>they older - they learn more about the world thus their fears, stress
>may pop up when they wake up, and also they have a desire to be awake
>and learning versus asleep!
>
>Regarding this wake up during the first two stages of the sleep
>cycle: A complete sleep plan can solve this so that a baby is able
>to fall back to sleep without calling for a parent's help each and
>every time he wakes between cycles.
>Does that answer your question?
>
>Jennifer:
>Re: "A complete sleep plan" - Do you mean having finished the
>plan,ie having gone through the various phases etc? I think you
>wrote it quite clearly, but I just like to make sure I understand.
>
>EP:
>Good question! What this actually means is that solving sleep issues
>is like a puzzle - if you only work on a few pieces you can't solve
>the whole problem. So it's smart to look at every aspect of your
>child's sleep and work on all areas, since the bits and pieces all
>work together to bring about better sleep.
>Hope this is helpful!
>Elizabeth
>
>Jennifer:
>Thanks so much! That's great information! May I share this with the
>Moms?
>
>EP:
>Yes, of course!
>=========================================
>
>Now it's Jennifer again. I read this info and thought "Oh yeah".
>She and the book are so great because I find I read it or info like
>she shares above and it just all makes so much sense and I wonder how
>I didn't think of it myself when I was having all the problems. I
>don't think it would have stopped my DS from waking after an hour
>because I really think his teeth were driving him crazy (he's 11
>months and he has gotten 14 teeth in the last 4 months... he looks
>like he has dentures... I guess he'll have all his adult teeth by the
>time he's 2... but I digress)... anyway, I don't think it would have
>stopped him from waking because I think he really wanted comfort...
>but at least I would have understood it more instead of banging my
>head against a wall trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.
>
>Hope this helps some people! I hope I asked the questions right... I
>was sort of basing it on my DS so it may be a bit different than the
>way other people would ask.
- Zennifer