I am a researcher and certified Gentle sleep coach. I've been researching the relationship between sleep training advice and the underlying research for over 20 years. I'm advocating for a new way to think about sleep and self-soothing that doesn't scare parents or unnecessarily raise the stakes for them and takes children's capacities into account. I evaluate current expert advice to look at how well it agrees with research on emotional, physical, and neurological development. I also look at how well both research and advice have considered temperament (spoiler alert: not well).

Sleep shouldn't feel like a minefield of risks to be avoided. It's time that we had a perspective on sleep that allowed parents to make choices that fit their family and allows them the room to experiment, learn, and grow.