The Fading Method of Sleep Training, Step by Step

The fading method of sleep training changes one thing slowly instead of everything at once. There are two versions. Bedtime fading moves bedtime later to when your child really falls asleep, then brings it earlier in 15-minute steps. Support fading keeps bedtime the same and gradually reduces the help you give, from rocking to patting to sitting nearby to leaving. Both involve far less crying than leaving the room, and both take longer. Expect one to three weeks for bedtime fading and several weeks for support fading.

I make my living in this industry, and fading is what I suggest first to families who have ruled out crying it out. For the bigger choice between fading and the other gentle approaches, see my no-cry methods comparison. This page is the how-to.

Before you start

Check readiness first. The AAP’s parent guidance on getting your baby to sleep puts its advice on falling asleep independently under babies 4 months and older, and notes that “babies do not have regular sleep cycles until about 4 months of age.” Younger than that, or with any open question about feeding, weight, reflux or breathing, wait. That’s a pediatrician conversation, full stop.

Then choose one version. If the struggle is a long, stalling, late bedtime, start with bedtime fading. If your child falls asleep fine but only with you rocking, feeding or lying beside them, start with support fading. Running both at once means you can’t tell which one is working.

Bedtime fading, step by step

Bedtime fading was developed by two professors of pediatrics, Cathleen Piazza and Wayne Fisher. The steps below follow Gwen Dewar’s evidence-based walkthrough at Parenting Science, which keeps their numbers:

1. Find the real sleep time. For a few nights, note when your child actually falls asleep, not when you put them down. If bedtime is 7:00 and sleep comes at 7:45, the real time is 7:45.
2. Set a temporary bedtime 15 to 30 minutes after that. In this example, 8:00. Your child gets into bed already sleepy, so bedtime stops being a battle.
3. Use a 15-minute test. If your child falls asleep within about 15 minutes, keep that bedtime the next night too. If it takes longer, move bedtime another 15 to 30 minutes later the next night.
4. After two good nights in a row, move bedtime 15 minutes earlier. Two nights of falling asleep within 15 minutes earns the next step back.
5. Keep a fixed morning wake time. Piazza and Fisher wake the child at the same time every day, even if they slept less. Dewar suggests not letting this cost more than an hour of sleep. I agree with her, especially for babies.
6. Repeat until you reach the bedtime you want. Dewar notes a 30-minute gap can close in a few days, while a gap of more than an hour may take up to two weeks.

On a setback night, when your child takes more than 15 minutes to fall asleep at the new time, go back to the last bedtime that worked. Don’t push on. The point of the method is that bedtime is easy, every night.

Support fading, step by step

Support fading has no single inventor. It’s the method behind the chair method and Kim West’s Sleep Lady Shuffle, which her own site calls parental fading. The general ladder runs like this:

1. Write down every kind of help your child currently needs to fall asleep, from most to least: feeding, rocking, holding, patting, shushing, a hand on the tummy, you sitting there.
2. Take away the top rung only. If you feed to sleep, feed until drowsy, then rock the rest of the way. If you rock to sleep, rock until drowsy and finish with patting in the crib.
3. Hold each step for three or four nights, or until falling asleep at that step is calm and routine. Then move down a rung.
4. Use the same help at night wakings as at bedtime. If bedtime has moved to patting but 2 a.m. still gets a full feed back to sleep, the plan has two systems and neither works. (Whether a night feed is still needed is a separate question for your pediatrician. My night weaning guide covers it.)
5. End with presence, then distance. The last rungs are you sitting by the crib, then farther away, then out of the room.

On a setback night, go back one rung for a night or two, not all the way to the start. In consults, the pattern I see is a parent who has a bad night at rung four and goes straight back to feeding to sleep. Two weeks of progress is lost to one rough night. A single step back is enough.

The drift trap. Support fading fails when the steps stop. A parent who has sat beside the crib for five weeks hasn’t faded anything; they’ve become the new way the baby falls asleep. Put the step dates in writing before night one.

What the evidence shows

The best trial is the 2016 randomised controlled trial by Gradisar and colleagues, published in Pediatrics. It randomised 43 infants aged 6 to 16 months to graduated extinction, bedtime fading or a sleep-education control. Its abstract reports “large decreases in sleep latency”, meaning the time taken to fall asleep, for both the fading and extinction groups. Large drops in night wakings and time awake overnight were seen in the graduated extinction group. A year later there were no differences between groups in emotional or behavioural problems or in attachment. The authors concluded that both methods “provide significant sleep benefits above control, yet convey no adverse stress responses.”

So bedtime fading has real evidence behind it, and the evidence is specific. It’s best at shortening the bedtime battle, and less proven for night wakings. Dewar makes the same point: the technique was “designed specifically for improving compliance at bedtime,” not for night waking. If your problem is wakings, support fading, which works on how your child gets back to sleep, is the better fit.

Support fading has less trial evidence of its own as a separate method. It’s widely used and fits the same principles. I’d call it well-reasoned rather than proven.

The free version of this advice

This whole page is the free version. Fading needs no app, course or product: a notebook to record sleep times and step dates, and the patience to hold each step. If you want structured help, the branded versions sell coaching, but the method underneath is what’s written here.

What I’d tell a client

Choose the version that matches your problem. Bedtime fading for the long, stalling bedtime, support fading for a child who needs you to fall asleep. Write the steps and dates down, hold each step for three or four nights, and when a night goes badly, go back one step, not to the start. Judge it weekly, not nightly. And if your child snores, stops breathing for moments, wakes in pain or isn’t feeding well, stop the plan. That’s a pediatrician conversation, full stop.

FAQ: the fading method

What is the fading method of sleep training?

A gentle approach that changes bedtime or your support in small steps rather than all at once. Bedtime fading adjusts the time; support fading reduces the help your child needs to fall asleep.

How long does the fading method take?

Bedtime fading usually takes a few days to two weeks, depending on how far you’re moving bedtime. Support fading often takes three to six weeks, because each rung is held for several nights.

Does the fading method involve crying?

Some fussing is normal, because you’re still changing something. Crying isn’t the mechanism, and you stay close and respond. It’s much milder than extinction or timed check-ins for most children.

Is bedtime fading the same as a later bedtime?

Only at the start. You move bedtime later so falling asleep is easy, then bring it earlier in 15-minute steps once your child is falling asleep quickly.

What age can you start the fading method?

Most families start after about four months, which is where the AAP’s guidance on independent sleep begins, and once their pediatrician agrees. Bedtime fading also works well for toddlers and preschoolers.