Top Baby Sleep Questions Answered

Baby Sleep Frequently Asked Questions

If your baby isn’t sleeping well the most important thing you need to know is, you are not alone. So many parents are struggling with the same baby sleep issues. Find out how you can help your baby sleep through the night and take great naps.

Should I be doing a bedtime routine with my baby and when should I start?

It’s important to have a consistent bedtime routine because this is going to help prepare your baby that it’s time to go to bed and also allows for some wonderful cuddles and attachment time with you and baby. A great bedtime routine can actually be practiced from day 1. You can also include a short naptime routine to help prepare them for some great daytime slumber.

What time should I be putting my baby to bed?

When our children are going to sleep well-rested they will have an easier time falling asleep because they won’t be overtired. Overtired babies and children have a harder time falling asleep and more nightly wakings as well. Sometimes just by bumping up bedtime, your child will sleep much better at night. A typical bedtime for babies 4-12 months is 5:30-7pm, depending on how naps go throughout the day. Mom and dad can get their nights back and your baby will go down before he’s overtired.

How can I help my child take longer naps?

By four to six months, babies will start showing a more predictable pattern of daytime sleep, so it’s a great time to start developing a nap schedule. Daytime sleep is one of the most important fundamentals in creating healthy sleep at night, but they’re also one of the most common sleep issues out there. We want to aim for a consolidated nap of at least an hour or more. While short naps of 30-45 minutes are common, it’s not enough of a restorative sleep and they are capable of pushing into the next cycle with a lot of persistence and consistency.

How do I teach my baby to fall asleep on their own?

You have to remember that however your baby falls asleep at bedtime is how they are going to need to fall asleep when they wake up in the middle of the night. It’s important to teach independent sleep skills so that whenever baby does wake up, they don’t need you to help them fall back to sleep. We need to remove sleep associations, like rocking and nursing to sleep. Put your child to bed awake and choose the sleep training method that works best for your family and stay consistent throughout the process.

Why does my baby wake up so early?

The first thing we want to make sure is that your baby’s room is conducive to sleep. We want to make sure that the early morning light is blacked out, so you may want to invest in black out blinds. Also, a white noise machine can come in handy to keep the early morning birds and traffic sounds at bay. The other issue could be your child isn’t getting the proper amount of consolidated sleep throughout the day and going to bed too late. Because of this your child could become overtired, which can result in more restless sleep throughout the night and an earlier wake time. Working on lengthening out naps and sometimes moving bedtimes slightly earlier can help push out those early morning wakings.

Need more information on helping your baby sleep? Check out these baby sleep articles from the Snuggle Bugz Learning Centre.