Raising Children Network: the Australian parenting website
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Babies and sleep: what fathers need to know

By Ngala, Hey Dad WA
 
 
The more you understand about your new baby’s sleep needs and cycles, the more likely you are to encourage the right environment for them to sleep well.

Babies’ sleep needs

  • Babies need sleep for physical growth and to allow their immune systems to develop effectively.
  • In their first few weeks, babies will show signs they are ready for sleep after 1-1.5 hours of wakefulness.
  • Babies up to 3 months old require on average of 16-18 hours sleep in a 24-hour period. This time is made up of sleeps that can last from 20 minutes up to 5 hours.
  • Sleep improves at night when you sleep your baby in natural darkness.

Sleep is a cycle of deep sleep, light sleep, brief awakening, deep sleep, light sleep, brief awakening and so on.

Helping babies sleep

Many babies need to learn how to settle and resettle themselves to sleep. This means simply falling asleep on their own without any assistance from an adult. Providing a predictable pre-bed routine (Feed-Play-Sleep) will improve the sleep of babies and children aged 0-5 years.