If you rock and bounce and walk your child to sleep for what seems like hours every night, you need to keep reading. I’m going to tell you why your child might need this, and give you a super easy strategy you can use to reduce the need for so much movement at night.
You’ll never guess how easy and simple it is!
Why Your Child Might Need So Much Movement to Fall Asleep
Rocking and bouncing are forms of a specific type of sensory input called vestibular input. Vestibular input activates the vestibular sensory system. All children need many different forms of sensory input to develop their sensory systems and also modulate their nervous system. However, there is a wide range of how much of each different types of sensory input children need.
Some children need more vestibular input than others.
Vestibular Input Has A Calming and Organizing Effect on the Nervous System
For the children who need lots of rocking and bouncing to sleep, it’s important to understand that this type of movement has a calming and organizing effect on the nervous system. In order for our children to sleep, they need to have an organized nervous system. Think about it- it’s much harder for you to sleep when you are feeling very dysregulated, stressed, angry, or overwhelmed/overstimulated, right? The same applies for our children.
Rocking, bouncing, and other forms of vestibular movement help our children go to sleep because it helps calm them.
Add in More Vestibular Input During the Day to Reduce Rocking at Night
If this sounds like your child, here’s what you can do:
try adding in more vestibular movement to your child’s day when they are awake.
Sometimes, when a child needs lots and lots of rocking and bouncing to get to sleep, this is a sign that they are really craving that modulating and calming vestibular input. It could also be a sign that your little one’s nervous system is very sensitive, and you may need to give them a little more help to calm down.
When we add in vestibular movement during the day, we can meet their need for vestibular, calming movement before those needs present at night as hours of rocking and bouncing.
The good news is that this is so easy! One really great form of vestibular movement that most children love is swinging. That’s right- swinging is more than just a fun childhood activity. The benefits of swinging cannot be overstated, and it can really help children who need lots of rocking and bouncing and other forms of movement to fall asleep.
It’s important to know that different forms of swinging can have different effects on the body. Linear swinging (swinging forward and backward like on a playground swing) has a calming and organizing effect on the nervous system, while other forms of swinging that involve rotation, spinning, and side to side movement can have an alerting and stimulating impact on the nervous system. This type of swinging has it’s place, but for the purposes of regulating the nervous system and providing calming vestibular input, linear swinging is what we are talking about here.
Some professionals hypothesize that swinging for only fifteen minutes can have an impact on the nervous system for hours! Here is my favorite outdoor swing (bonus: you can use this for linear swinging OR rotary swinging, so it provides a variety of types of sensory input.) I also love this type of cocoon swing for indoors- it’s super calming!
Swinging isn’t the only way you can add in more calming vestibular input during the day. You can also rock with your child in a rocking chair and even bounce on an exercise ball with them in a playful way.
When you add more vestibular input into your child’s day and meet the needs they are signalling to you at night, you may find that the amount of rocking and bouncing they need to get to sleep decreases. This doesn’t mean they won’t need any movement at all to get to sleep. But pro-actively anticipating and meeting our children’s sensory needs can go a long way in keeping their nervous systems modulated during the day, which can result in sleep coming quicker and easier.
Try to add short durations of calming, vestibular input into your child’s day and see what happens! I’d love to hear from you in the comments- has this helped your child not need so much rocking and bouncing?
If you are in need of more sleep support, grab one of my comprehensive eCourses, such as The Infant Sleep Foundations eCourse or the Toddler Sleep Foundations eCourse. The Toddler Sleep Foundations eCourse includes a section on sensory processing and sleep, which is very helpful for those with a highly sensitive, and/or perceptive children. If you’d prefer 1:1 support, you can book a call or support package.
