To monitor the sleep patterns of your child, you can use the following (free!) sleep chart template, which we have adapted from a study by Largo and Hunziker (1984):
Sleep chart template in US letter formatKeeping a sleep log with this template will help you get an objective picture of the sleep patterns of your child. It will also allow you to detect whether there is a tendency for sleep patterns to become more regular, or for night wakings to decrease.
The featured image above is an example of how it looks once you start to fill it. It is adapted from the sleep chart of a 6-month-old girl published in Largo and Hunziker, 1984. You can see that in this case, after a behavioral intervention, the irregular sleep/awake pattern turns into a more regular pattern of longer periods of sleep and being awake.
References
Largo, R. H., & Hunziker, U. A. (1984). A developmental approach to the management of children with sleep disturbances in the first three years of life. European Journal of Pediatrics, 142(3), 170-173.
[…] the sides of the cot… it’s a whole repertoire) at that wicked hour. So, I started a sleep chart to see if there are any patterns, and we’ll see where we’re at in a few […]