How to Help Your Baby Sleep at Night?

Getting your newborn baby to sleep through the night is a common struggle among parents, whether they’re first-timers or veterans. You always end up losing sleep yourself trying to help your little ones go to bed.

Newborn babies need to wake up every few hours to feed, so it’s basically impossible to avoid waking up in the middle of the night.

Although sleepless nights are a rite of passage for most parents, there are simple hacks to get your baby to sleep longer and help you gain all the sleep you’ve lost!

Today, we’re here to help you take back the night with our guide on how to help your baby develop a healthy sleeping pattern. Read on below to find what you can do!

Start a bedtime routine

Newborn babies learn it’s time to go to sleep from cues that surround them, so it’s never too early to introduce a bedtime routine!

The routine should be simple and easy to do, so you won’t have a hard time repeating it every night. That’s because even a minor change can easily set babies off, resulting in more difficulty in sleeping and waking up more frequently at night. 

About 30 minutes before bedtime, dim the lights and turn the noise down. Lighting and noise serve as stimuli that help set your baby’s internal body clock, telling them that bedtime is near. 

The routine should always end in calming and soothing activities like swaddling, cuddling, or singing a lullaby. 

Start the routine before your baby gets tired, so they can associate these activities with bedtime by the time their energy runs out. Finally, follow the routine in order every night so your baby knows what to expect! 

Stick to an early bedtime

Some parents believe that putting babies to sleep late at night helps them sleep longer, but keeping them up late at night over-stimulates their brains and makes them harder to put to bed. 

Establish a fixed sleeping schedule and follow it every night to keep your little one on track and encourage them to sleep at appropriate times.

It takes a while for newborn babies to develop their own biological clock, so setting an early bedtime helps develop their natural daily rhythm and healthy sleeping patterns they can carry while growing up. 

Put them to sleep in your room

Even if your home has a nursery, it’s ideal to have your little one sleep in your room to keep them company at night, at least for the first 6 months. 

We suggest getting their own baby cot, with a firm and cosy baby mattress because adult beds aren’t always safe for newborn babies. 

Baby mattresses are recommended over regular mattresses as these are designed to provide excellent support for infants and toddlers while sleeping. 

Babies can get trapped and suffocated between slats and between the mattress and bed frame, so having their own baby cot and mattress is critical for safety reasons. 

Take nap times seriously

Regular naps are crucial for getting your baby to sleep through the night, so encourage (and join) them to take catnaps during the day!

It may work on adults, but allowing babies to skip naps doesn’t help them sleep quicker and longer at night. In fact, when newborns get tired, their stress hormones rise. 

While stress hormones can help them fall asleep, it likely won’t be for long as these hormones can easily wake them up too.

Don’t feed right before bedtime

Babies can indeed fall asleep right after or while feeding, but it’s not advisable to use feeding time to encourage your baby to sleep. Feeding before bedtime wires their brain to think that they need food in order to fall asleep. 

To avoid this, move the feeding time a few hours from bedtime, then finish the sleeping routine by reading a book and singing a lullaby, or any soothing activity. You still have to get up at midnight to feed them, but it will be about hunger, not to soothe them back to sleep.