Here’s a fast fact that may surprise you (or may not surprise you, depending on how many newborns you’ve cared for over the years): by the age of two, most children will have spent more time asleep than they’ve spent awake.
But as any parent of a newborn baby knows, figuring out how to help your baby sleep through the night can be a challenge. Because though your baby might love escaping to dreamland, that doesn’t mean they’re good at catching Z’s on your schedule.
Luckily, there are a few tricks to put your baby to sleep that will help baby sleep through the night so the whole family enjoy a better night of rest. Here are 4 of our favorites:
1. LEARN BABY SLEEP CUES
When your baby is tired, they’ll tell you.
Okay, it might not be quite that easy. But every baby has sleep cues that will clue you in that they’re in need of some rest.
And catching these clues is key—because when it comes to how to make baby sleep at night, things can get tricky when your baby skips over “tired” and heads toward “overtired.”
Though it might seem counterintuitive, it can be difficult to calm an overtired baby down and settle into sleep.
Not only that, but overtired babies can actually have a harder time staying asleep once they’ve finally closed their eyes. And feeding will become the last thing they want to do, which means both their sleep schedule and feed schedule could get disrupted when you miss their baby sleep cues.
These baby sleep cues can vary from kiddo to kiddo. But if your baby is yawning, acting over-quiet or over-calm, is seeming fussy, is rubbing their eyes, seems disinterested, or is less social than normal, it might be a sign that they’re ready for sleep.
The most important thing is to start paying attention to your baby’s patterns and recognizing when changes in behavior are a sign it’s time for them to get rest.
Helping them get proper amounts of sleep during the day will help them be less overtired at night—so you all sleep better.
2. HELP BABY SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT WITH THE RIGHT BABY BEDTIME ROUTINE
During the first few months with your baby, it might feel like getting your baby to sleep at night is the top priority, no matter what you have to do to make that happen.
If you’re feeling in “sleep survival mode” while running on just a few short hours of shut-eye yourself, it can be easy to rely on rocking baby to sleep to get your little one to snooze as quickly as possible.
But these aren’t always sustainable ways of getting your baby to sleep at night. In the long run, your baby can become reliant on that pre-bedtime feed or pre-bedtime rock as a way of dropping off to dreamland.
And while this works fine for some families and some babies, other parents discover that their sleep is more interrupted and harder to get when their baby has a nursing-to-sleep association or depends on being rocked to sleep.
As your baby passes the 2-3 month mark, you’ll start to understand their sleep patterns better.
This is a good time to find other ways to clue your baby in that it’s time to get some rest. Consider putting together a bedtime routine that soothes your baby through gentle cuddling, snuggling, singing, or quiet reading.
If you keep consistent about performing your chosen routine right before bedtime, your baby will begin to understand that this means it’s time for them to get some rest—so you can get some rest too!
3. GET BABY TO SLEEP AT NIGHT BY HELPING THEM DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN DAY AND NIGHT
When your baby is firstborn, they don’t really know the difference between day and night. (And for good reason! They’ve spent the last 9 months in the womb, after all!).
They need to learn when the best time of day to rest is—and when it’s time to be awake.
One of the best tricks to get baby sleep through the night is to adapt their environment so the difference between day and night is clear.
Leave the windows open to let light in during the day, and keep these daytime hours as the most energetic and social ones you’ll spend with your baby.
As the night comes, start to dim the lights, do calming activities like putting on light music, and hold off on giving your baby as much social time.
Over time, they’ll start to understand that there are differences between night and day, and feel more encouraged to be calm and restful during those dark and quiet nighttime hours.
4. USE A BABY CO SLEEPER OR BEDSIDE CRIB
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends room sharing (or sleeping in the same room as your baby) for at least the first year of their life.
And that’s for good reason—the AAP recognizes how important close contact (including skin-to-skin contact) is for helping your baby feel safe and secure.
There are numerous benefits of sleeping close to your baby with a baby co sleeper or bedside crib
In addition to giving your baby a feeling of nurturing support that lasts all night long (and keeps them happily drifting in dreamland), a baby co-sleeper can make nighttime nursing easier by helping you give baby what they need—without there being too much disruption to your own sleep.
And if your baby needs calming during the night, you’ll be able to offer them comfort and love without even needing to leave the bed.
Meaning that you’ll help baby sleep through the night — without having to disrupt your own rest to do it!
If you’ve never tried sleeping with the help of a baby co sleeper or bedside crib, read more about safe co-sleeping and discover how it can help your family get better rest
Author and award-winning CEO and keynote speaker David Asarnow is an “edutainment” speaking professional. As your keynote speaker, David educates, informs and entertains your group and motivates them to take immediate business actions.