In fading, parents gradually diminish their
bedtime role by sitting near your baby until she falls asleep and gradually moving the chair farther away from the crib each night.
Randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that teaching parents to use graduated extinction (i.e., parent checks on and comforts their infant at increasing time intervals but leaves the room before the infant falls asleep) or adult
fading (i.e., a parent places a camp bed or chair next to their infant's cot, pats their infant to sleep for the first few nights, then gradually moves their camp bed or chair out of the infant's bedroom over a period of weeks) reduces both infant sleep problems and maternal depression symptoms.5
In toddlers, provision of a
bedtime routine by parents has also been shown to reduce sleep problems.6