Why Your Baby Still Fights Sleep Even When You’ve Changed Everything
From Thriving Parent-ing by Jen Cuttriss - Sleep Thrive Grow - Baby & Parent Sleep Coach & Mindset Mentor
April 13, 2026 · 18 min · Episode 109
About this episode
Jen Cuttriss discusses why babies resist sleep despite parents' best efforts and how understanding their brain can help shift sleep patterns.
Even when you’ve slowed down, changed your approach, and feel like you’re doing everything “right,” your baby may still resist sleep—and it’s not because you’ve failed. In this episode, Jen unpack the powerful role of your baby’s brain and how it predicts sleep based on past experiences, not just what’s happening in the moment. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, this conversation helps you understand why your baby reacts before anything even happens at bedtime, and how both your nervous systems are influencing each other. Most importantly, it reframes sleep struggles not as a behaviour problem, but as a pattern that can gently shift with consistency, safety, and new experiences over time. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why your baby reacts to sleep before anything actually happens How the brain uses past experiences to predict and prepare for bedtime What “miscuing” looks like and why it’s completely normal How your baby’s nervous system responds to previous sleep struggles The role your own nervous system plays in bedtime resistance Why consistency in how you show up matters more than strict routines How to create new, positive sleep associations over time Why change doesn’t…
People in this episode
Host: Jen Cuttriss
Topics covered
- baby sleep
- neuroscience
- parenting
- nervous system
- sleep struggles
- mindset
Keywords
- baby sleep
- sleep resistance
- nervous system
- sleep associations
- parenting strategies
- neuroscience
- sleep clarity
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