A method for promoting continuous sleep of a subject by eliminating and/or preventing sleep associations includes: (a) providing an apparatus including at least one sensor and at least one output device; (b) monitoring a state of the subject using the apparatus; (c) determining the subject is in an awake state using the at least one sensor; (d) in response to determining the subject is in the awake state, initiating and maintaining an output using the at least one output device; (e) determining the subject is in a sleep state using the at least one sensor; (f) halting the output in response to determining that the subject is in the sleep state such that the apparatus does not produce any output; (g) repeating at least step (b) during a sleep session. The method further includes modifying an intensity of the output over time until the intensity reaches zero.