Sleep. Precious, precious sleep. We want our babies to sleep because it helps them grow and stay healthy and for so many other reasons, but it also helps that the more they sleep the more we (parents) get to sleep. In today’s article, we’re going to help you and your baby with just that: getting more sleep, or at least how to avoid these five common mistakes that can actually ruin your baby’s sleep.
If you have any tips or experiences in this matter, then please don’t hesitate to sound off in the comments or hit us up on social media. We appreciate the following and would love to learn about any challenges you’ve been going through and so do our readers.
Mistake Number 1: Getting The Baby Up After Just A Single Sleep Cycle
A baby’s sleep cycle is generally between 30 and 45 minutes long. After putting a baby down to sleep, make sure to allow the baby to sleep longer than just a single sleep cycle so they can get more restorative sleep. If a baby gets short cat naps like this all day (of just 30 to 45 minutes), they will be tired! These short naps are very un-restorative and unrestful to the baby/child. These cat naps can also lead to a habitual pattern of catnapping and not sleeping well through the night. We often see this with inquiries from families with 6 to 12 month old babies. Let those batteries charge!
Mistake Number 2: Allowing The Baby To Sleep Too Much During The Daytime
It may be tempting to allow your little one to sleep as much as humanly possible during the daytime so that you can get more done around the house or catch up on work emails or whatever else needs to be done. Please don’t fall into that trap! If babies are allowed to sleep too much during the day, then they will be less likely to want or need to sleep during the night. This is problematic for parents as this is when we are desperately needing our sleep. To avoid being up all day and all night, we recommend tracking your baby’s daytime sleep and adjusting it if they are on the high end and wanting to be up partying at night. Here is a handy quick reference guide on approximately how many hours each day per age group your baby should be sleeping.
- Newborn – 12 weeks 4.5-6 hours
- 12-16 weeks – 4-5 hours
- 4-5 months – 3.5-4.5 hours
- 6-7 months – 3-4.25 hours
- 8 months – 2.75-4 hours
- 9-12 months 2.5-3.5 hours
Mistake Number 3: Not Having A Consistent Bedtime Routine
Babies thrive on consistency! The ability to recognize simple patterns starts to develop around six to eight weeks of age and only gets better after that. Adopting a consistent bedtime routine helps your baby understand a series of events that helps to set them up for a long and restful night of sleep. As time goes on, they will anticipate these events and even look forward to them. Simple things like bath, massage, diaper, jammies, books, bottle/breast, white noise, hug/kisses then to bed.
As part of your bedtime routine, allowing time for your baby to have some child-led play will help them to unwind in a non stimulating environment and spend 1:1 time with parents or caregivers. This time allows baby to feel connected and to process events from the day. This is important because they will go to bed with their love tank full and not try to further process the day’s event when it is time to sleep.
Mistake Number 4: Trying Anything And Everything To Get Baby To Sleep
We’ve all been there. After a few rough nights, followed by rougher days, will cause even the most patient and structured parents to lose their cool. As that next night approaches you will literally try anything that you think may help get your baby to sleep. This is often a sign of inconsistency in the night time routine. Make sure that you and other caregivers, or your partner discuss a good nightly routine and stick to it consistently, even if it puts some other things in your calendar out of whack. Keep trying, you got this!
Mistake Number 5: Sleep Environment Is Too Bright
Light. It is a constant struggle to control just how much gets in your baby’s room at each particular hour of the day. The struggle is real! To really ensure that your baby has the best shot at sleeping through the night, you will want to have full control over how much light is in their sleep environment at any given time.
I know, I know. You’ve heard this elsewhere, but it is SO important. Babies do NOT produce melatonin well in the first 3 months of lif. Even heading in to the fourth month, it still takes some time to regulate. When there is light in the sleep space, that light will hit the eyelids and signal to the brain to stop making melatonin. It also tells the baby to be awake. I’ve seen many times babies lay awake in their crib quietly and start at a blank wall. First getting distracted, then overtired. You’d be surprised how effective a very dark environment and white noise are for babies and their ability to calm, regulate and drift off into dreamland.
For very bright rooms you may consider BOTH blackout blinds and curtains.
Before You Go
We hope you enjoyed learning about tips for avoiding critical mistakes for your baby’s sleep schedule. If you would like to know more about this, our sleep learning, consulting or training programs or any of our excellent newborn care services, we are happy to help. Just contact us and we can go over your options and help you find the best path for your little one.
We hope these tips have helped you along your journey. If you have any questions about helping your baby to sleep better, or about your baby in general, please reach out to us HERE. We are experts in all things baby and sleep and would love to help!
If you have questions about your child, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to help. Please reach out to us here! We always look forward to hearing from you.
