Newborn sleep: in a nutshell

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• Newborn sleep: the basics
• Where baby sleeps
• Letting your newborn fall asleep
• Sleeping through the night
• Good sleep habits
  
• Sleep tips 

Newborn sleep: the basics

In the first weeks of life, babies sleep for an average of 16-18 hours a day. A newborn will usually sleep for 2-4 hours at a time, wake up for a feed and short play, and then drop off again.

In the early days, your baby might doze off constantly without a peep (unless your baby has colic). Newborns might fall asleep in a baby pouch, in a pram, a car baby capsule or in a bassinet.

Where baby sleeps

Some mothers prefer to sleep next to their babies and are happy to keep doing this long-term. Other parents prefer their newborns to sleep in their own cot from day one. And there are lots of other options in between.

Sleeping with you
Many experts agree that there are benefits of baby sharing your bed (also called co-sleeping). On the one hand, it can make breastfeeding easier in the early weeks. On the other hand, it comes with risks such as accidental smothering or crushing. Breastfed newborns might smell their mothers’ milk and wake more often for a feed. This means they might continue feeding every three hours at night for some time. Also, the longer babies sleep with their parents, the harder it might be to convince them to sleep in their own beds later on.

Sleeping in a cot
It is absolutely fine if you want your baby to start sleeping in a cot, even from day one. In fact, that is the easiest time to start. As long as your baby gets enough milk and caring attention when awake, baby can happily sleep alone in a cot. Your baby needs you for a lot of things but, luckily, sleeping is not one of them. This is something babies can already do by themselves.

Letting your newborn fall asleep

Whether your newborn sleeps with you or in a cot, the trick is to put newborns down to bed just before they doze off, every time, day and night. This is so they can do the falling asleep part themselves.

This way, babies ‘learn’ to drift off without depending on you to settle them to sleep for naps and bedtime, or any time during their normal sleep rhythm. Until babies are three months old, they’ll still need you to feed them and change their nappies at least every four hours. (By the time babies are three months old, they will be waking often at night – the idea is that they will be able to settle themselves to sleep again.)

Comforting
Some babies do fuss and cry at sleep time. The most important thing is to do what you feel is right for you and your newborn, under the circumstances. If you’re looking for ideas, the patting settling technique might help. It can give comfort to babies without making them dependent on being walked, swung, bounced, driven or rocked to sleep every time.

In some cases, inconsolable crying can be caused by colic or overstimulation – sometimes newborns need less going on, not more. That’s why wrapping helps many newborns to sleep. It reduces their body twitching while they are trying to sleep. It can also make them feel secure (like they were in the womb).

Starting a sleep routine
You can start a newborn sleep routine anytime between day one and three weeks (when newborns are so groggy, they tend to fall asleep easily). For example, if you consistently put your baby in the cot to fall asleep, your baby will soon prefer falling asleep in the cot to anywhere else.

If you can learn to predict when your baby gets tired, you can be ready with the nappy changed before baby starts to drift off. It helps to know your baby’s sleep signs and to have a good ‘feed, play, sleep’ routine.

Sleeping through the night

Most new parents dream of getting back to their old sleep schedule. But, just as you want your baby to sleep more at night, your baby wants you to learn to rest during the day, so you can be fresh when your baby wakes up.

In the first few months, it is common for newborns to wake 2-3 times a night for feeds.

Good sleep habits

Good sleep habits are mostly about associations with bedtime rituals and the physical sleep environment. There are also a couple of important biological clocks that shape sleep habits. It helps to understand how those things work when you’re trying to set up good sleep habits or change existing ones.

Sleep associations
Pre-sleep rituals that involve one or more parent can help promote positive associations with sleep, as long as they are soothing (especially for a colicky baby). Rituals can include softly showering babies with affection, kisses and cuddles, bathing, comfy pyjamas, a feed, dim lights, soft music or even baby massage.

Falling asleep environment
It’s best to keep baby’s falling asleep environment simple and consistent (and not dependent on you). This could include:

• the familiar look, feel and smell of baby’s cot
• the sound of a fan
• a snug wrapping
• darkness (luckily, newborns are not afraid of the dark yet!).

Soon, your baby will begin to associate these things with sleep – ‘Ah, I'm in my nice comfy cot. The last time I was here, I went to sleep. It must be sleepy time’.

Biological clocks
The ‘tummy clock’ helps remind us what time to feel hungry. The circadian rhythm reminds us when to feel sleepy and when to wake up. These are mostly set by what we did yesterday and the day before. Parents can help tune these clocks to fit in, as much as possible, with the rest of the family.

Sleep tips

• You can help your newborn to associate darkness with sleep by minimising activity, noise and light when you are feeding or changing a nappy during the night.
• A milk bottle in bed is not a good sleep aid. It can cause illness if milk goes down the wrong way. As babies get older and develop teeth, it can also cause severe tooth decay if milk pools in the mouth while your baby sleeps. Read more about the dangers of bottle-feeding in bed.
• The tummy clock is powerful enough to wake a baby with hunger pangs. So, starting at three months, if your baby wakes up hungry at 2 am or 3 am, you can offer a bottle of sterile water. This might give your baby enough associations to get back to sleep, and turn off the tummy alarm clock after a couple of nights.

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  Newsletter snippet: Newborn sleep: in a nutshell
  

   

  By Raising Children Network

  Newborn babies need lots of sleep but they also need to feed at regular intervals.

  • Newborns sleep for 16-18 hours a day. They might sleep for 2-4 hours, wake for a feed and short play, then drop off to sleep again.
  • By 8-10 weeks, they might sleep for 4-6 hours at night before waking for a feed.
  • By 10-12 weeks, they could be sleeping for 6-8 hours at night.

  Encourage newborns to go to sleep independently by:

  • establishing sleep associations such as bedtime rituals and a consistent sleep environment
  • putting them to bed while they’re still awake, rather than letting them drop off while feeding or cuddling
  • wrapping them to reduce body movements and make them feel secure
  • rhythmically patting them if they’re upset.

  This article is an extract only. For more information visit raisingchildren.net.au/sleep/newborns_sleep.html

  Sourced from the Raising Children Network's comprehensive and quality-assured Australian parenting website www.raisingchildren.net.au.