I do think that this must mean babies that are repeatedly left to cry for prolonged periods of time, though there's no data on how long/how often given in the article. All babies regardless of how gently we treat them cry and cry and cry - if that damaged us permanently, the species would have died out long ago. We've all paced the floor with a screaming child trying everything we can to get him or her to stop crying and this can happen night after night - apparently with no ill effects. I'm not advocating being cruel to your child! but just want to put some (to me) fairly obvious logic into a discussion topic that makes people feel terribly guilty. snowboarder - you have my utmost sympathy, it's so hard. I agree with Belle that my experience showed that getting into a good routine with naps immediately led to better sleep at night. But my baby was much older when he managed it. Try to get some help with your own rest if you possibly can. Oh... and yes, you WILL get back to your relatively normal life and I'm sure including snowboarding. Maybe not too soon - but one day!