If you have not already done so, please read Blog Posts 1 through 5 that describe how sleep is important and beneficial. I will post specific information for parents and children based on my book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.” Please do not be put off by my book’s length. This is a reference book. Read only the topic of interest to you.
During the first 6 months, there are predictable transitions regarding healthy baby sleep:
The timing of these transitions are approximations, but they do apply for the vast majority of infants.
However, some infants (20%) have colic and difficulty settling at night until they are 2-4 months old, and some infants have only brief and/or more frequent naps until 9 months old.
Also, some parents are unable to put their baby to sleep when drowsy but awake (Blog Post 9) and some parents respond to every sound their baby makes with an unnecessary feeding (Blog Post 11).
Because of individual variation within your child (Blog Posts 14 and 94) and issues within the parents (Blog Posts 17–18), it is important to be flexible and nonjudgmental.
My baby sleep advice, during the first 6 months, is simple:
Hi Dr Marc,
I have a question regarding our newborns maturing circadian rhythm.
Our 8 week old (adjusted age due to being born early) son seems to be very content to take long naps during the daytime (3-4 hour naps). I put him in his cot drowsy but awake and he very quickly falls asleep during the day, often with no fussing or crying, sometimes with less than 5 mins of fussing before he is asleep. He has become quite good at putting himself to sleep after being nursed to a drowsy state.
We have been implementing an early bedtime from 6 weeks (17.30-18.30), but he does not sleep long stretches in the evening, initially he slept 4 hours after bedtime, for 3 nights in a row, but not again since , even though he has slept so well during the day and has not become overtired during the day due to short periods of wakefulness that we have been careful about. (Asleep after 1 hour of being awake)
After his ‘bedtime’ he sleeps about 2hr30min max, he does not take a long night stretch. Then after that he will easily fall asleep again for about 1 to 2hrs after being nursed.
His last nap before bedtime is sometimes 3-4 hours. (From about 2pm-5 or 6pm). I tried cutting the nap short one night to give an earlier bedtime, but this made no difference, he still did not take a long night stretch.
For us the main concern is between midnight and 6am where we have a much more awake baby. He is less willing to go back to sleep than he is during the day and before midnight. He will also wake up every 45 mins to an hour during this time period. I do not feed him when he wakes after an hour. We have tried leaving him now to fall back asleep on his own due to not being sure what to do. He usually falls asleep again, but only for about one hour. This continues up until about 6 or 7am each night. We are very tired due to all the wakings. He is in his own room now. We also stopped using the pacifier 5 days ago as it was not helpful as he would wake up every time it fell out. He has displayed being able to soothe himself to sleep without it during the daytime and at bedtime.
My question is, is this something we can correct at this point or is this simply a byproduct of his circadian rhythm not have matured yet? Do we wait it out until about 12 weeks for this to iron itself out, or will it simply get worse?
Thanks in advance!
At about 46 weeks post-conception, the night sleep circadian rhythm develops and babies have longer stretches of night sleep and an earlier bedtime. Plus, they begin to develop a social smile. That is, a smile in response to the parent’s smile. Does he have a social smile?
At about 46 weeks post-conception, babies have peak fussiness/wakefulness, especially at night. When did the after midnight sleep issue begin and has it changed since then?
How often is his falling asleep time at night close to 5:30pm versus close to 6:30pm?
An update on the above. It seems today his naps are quite short, he is struggling to settle and sleeps about 30-45 mins if lucky, The same pattern we have seen after midnight during the day today.
Hi Dr Marc,
He has been socially smiling for about a week for sure. Before that we weren’t too sure. Two weeks back (when he was 6 weeks) he was at the peak of his fussiness for about 4 days, where he would be awake for a couple of hours before midnight and very difficult to get to sleep. That has died down. Prior to this 4 nights, he would fall asleep at 17.00 and sleep 4 hours, I could not keep him awake until later. He only slept for 4 hours at this time for about 3 days, before it stopped at 6 weeks and we could no longer achieve a long stretch of sleep at bedtime.
The after midnight issue has been going on for a week now, so started around 7 and a half weeks. He is now 8 weeks and 3 days.
He is more often asleep at 6 or just after 6 for the past few nights due to his last nap being long.
Because it began only one week ago and he has an early bedtime and great naps, I would wait and watch for another 5-10 days to see what evolves regarding the after midnight issue. I would suggest giving the least amount of attention after midnight and have the father go and soothe if needed. Use low-intensity soothing (Blog Post 145). Meanwhile, read the section on ‘Sleep Solutions’ and think about which one you might want to try, if needed.
How does this sound?
I forgot to mention that last night his bedtime was 19:45 because his nap before that was 4hr3mins. I was not sure whether to wake him for an early bedtime, since we have not had success.
Hi Dr Marc;
Thank you for your message. I do think giving it a few more days will be good. Regarding the point on minimal attention at night, I read in your book in the sleep solutions chapter that a baby can be fed every 4 hours. Up until now, I was willing to go to him for a feeding every 2 hours even though I felt he was probably not very hungry. I started implementing this last night, by being willing to feed somewhere between 3-4 hours to minimise the amount of feedings after midnight.
I did not see your message before bedtime last night. (Our time zones are very different). So I spontaneously decided to cut his nap short in the afternoon. It had been going for 2 hours already and it was 16.20. I was concerned that he may sleep another 2 hours, which would make his bedtime later, around 7pm so I spontaneously decided to cut it short at 16.20, to aim for a bedtime of 17.30. Whether this was a silly idea, I am not sure. I then did the bedtime routine with him, he could barely keep awake for longer than 30 mins; he only finished half his nursing session before he was out. However he then slept for 3hr40mins before waking, which is the longest night stretch we’ve had in a while.
I then fed him, which was just before 9pm. He fed quickly and again fell asleep half way through nursing, but I do believe he was hungry. He then slept for another 3hr 10min which meant he then woke up at midnight. I was aiming to feed him every 3-4 hours and ignore otherwise, so this worked out well.
I then fed him at midnight, this was brief and he quickly fell asleep again. He was hungry for sure and did not appear to be very awake after the feed as per previous nights.
He then slept for 2hr40mins before waking up. We decided to push this out a bit and ignore him for a bit. He cried for 10mins and fell asleep for another 40mins. I then went to feed him at this point, which was at 4am. Again he was hungry, fed quickly and fell asleep quickly without appearing to be very awake.
He then slept until 7am and was up for the day.
I feel last night went a lot better, and I already feel a bit more rested with only have done 3 feedings over night and him only crying once outside of the times I was willing to feed at.
What I’m not sure about is whether this would have still occurred if he had had a later bedtime (say 6 or 7pm) or if cutting his nap short had helped last night?
What would you suggest going forward if his last nap is running past 16.00? Should I cut it short to maintain an early bedtime, or do I let him nap until he naturally wakes?
I am willing to experiment for a few nights and see how things pan out.
I am hoping to push out feedings to 4hours during the night, I think this may also be helpful.
Congratulations! You are on the right path. The early bedtime prevents pre-sleep arousal and reduces the number of night wakings.
Let me know how it goes.
Thank you Dr Marc,
We’ve now had 3 great nights in a row!
We’ve had bedtimes of 17.00, 17.15 and then 17.20.
The longest stretch we’ve got after bedtime was 5hr40mins which happened last night. What a turn around!
Thank you for your help and your book. My parenting experience would have been very hopeless otherwise!
Please consider writing a narrative report here of your sleep journey and I would copy it for a Blog Post. Mothers would be more attuned to your voice than mine. The more detailed, the better. Please add the role of your husband (+ or -).