A fact every parent knows: If the little one isn’t sleeping, no one is.
For years, parents — especially moms — have been on a perpetual search for ways to help those little bundles of joy fall asleep. Dads are no longer exempt and have joined in that search. A thousand consultants, influencers, and “experts” all swear by one method or another and are eager to share their knowledge. But at a price.
A mom in a new-parent group once shelled out $350 for a one-hour Zoom call with a sleep consultant who told her — oh, wisdom of the ages! — to “be consistent.” Another dad sheepishly admitted he Venmo’ed $275 for a PDF sleep plan that ended up being a list of nap schedules downloaded from Google.
The fact that huckster maneuvers like these find adherents only points to the seriousness of the situation. Neither sleep-deprived infants nor their exhausted-to-the-bones parents are happy. Something’s got to work, right?
Enter ChatGPT. For $20/month (the cost of the Plus subscription), parents are experimenting with AI as their new “baby sleep coach.” It’s not free, but it’s still cheaper than a single consultation — and it’s available any time your baby decides sleep is optional.
Why Parents Are Curious About AI Sleep Coaching
Baby sleep struggles aren’t new. Your own parents had to deal with the problem, and so did their parents and their parents and their parents’ parents, all the way back to prehistoric times when Barney and Betty Rubble paced the stone floors with a sleepless, unhappy Pebbles.
Books such as Dr. Ferber’s Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems and Melinda Blau and Tracy Hogg’s Secrets of the Baby Whisperer are only two volumes in an ocean of print. What’s changed is how millennial and Gen Z parents approach the problem: they live online, they swap hacks in forums, and they don’t hesitate to try digital shortcuts.
Sites like Solutions4Sleep point out the value: “Unlike infomercial sleep books or costly consultants at $300+ per consultation, ChatGPT provides live troubleshooting at half the cost, at only $20 monthly.”
Parents are already spreading the word. In the What to Expect community, one mom wrote that ChatGPT gave her three different approaches for handling nap resistance, which gave a huge boost to her confidence. Another dad joked that it “knows more about wake windows than my in-laws.”
Moms, Dads & The Night Shift
Dads can panic when they’re thrust into co-pilot mode. And as for moms, baby sleep advice can be a barrage of unsolicited tips. “Tried white noise? Warm baths? Yoga for babies?”
AI evens the playing field. Both parents can pull up the same ChatGPT thread, compare notes, and try strategies together. One dad joked that at least ChatGPT “outsources the arguing” — no more bickering over which expert to follow when the expert is a chatbot that politely says, “Here are three options you could try.”
Points to remember
- Baby sleep coaching is a billion-dollar, unregulated industry
- Sleep consultants can charge $300+
- Parents like that ChatGPT is 24/7, neutral, and cheaper
- It’s not a replacement for medical advice, but it is a handy survival tool
A Final Word For The Sleep-Deprived
Is ChatGPT going to magically get your baby to sleep through the night? No. But can it help you feel like you’re not the only person with an infant who will never ever-ever-ever sleep again in the history of the world. ChatGPT is there with suggestions when you’ve run out of ideas.
Parenting has always been about improvising. We use what works. Who knows? ChatGPT might just hold the key to a good night’s rest for the entire family.
