3 Steps To Help Your Baby Sleep Through The Night

Want to help your baby sleep through the night? Is your baby not sleeping as you'd like? 3 crucial steps will help you get the most sleep.


 

Step 1 - Sleeping Through The Night Basics

Good sleep always starts with the same baby sleep through night basics.

A good baby sleep schedule helps your baby settle for sleep easily, sleep well and for longer stretches.

A well adapted schedule helps newborn babies discover the difference between day and night (newborn baby sleep schedule), several month olds to start taking regular naps and longer nights (sleep schedule 1-4 months) and sees a bigger baby sleeping through the night consistently (sleep schedule 4 - 12 months).

Good naps during the day are crucial for good nights (see "Nap in a Snap" for step-by-step guidance with baby naps).

A bedtime routine is crucial to help your baby wind down before bed time and you'll also find your baby sleeping deeper and for longer stretches.

Self soothing is an all important skill to have baby sleep through the night. Most babies need quite some time and consistent guidance to learn to fall asleep on their own.

Luckily there are alternatives to simply put your baby down awake and cold-turkey crying it out techniques: from effective self soothing tips on to different sleep method / sleep training approaches.

Night feedings are quite necessary and unavoidable in young babies. A newborn baby should not be without feeding longer than 3-4 hours. From anywhere between 4-6 months and 1 year old, night feedings will no longer be strictly necessary.

Depending on the baby, she will continue to wake for feeding out of habit, or simply because she needs some reassurance. Nothing wrong with that, but if the night awakenings are very frequent or you simply won't have her wake up so often, reduce the night feedings with these baby sleep through night tips. There's helpful hints on avoiding early awakenings and the use of a dummy or pacifier too.

Not everyone agrees on what "sleeping through the night" means: some moms are thrilled when their baby sleeps for 5 hours non-stop, others need 12 hours in a row before talking about "sleeping through". Find out what is reasonable to expect in "Isn't Your Baby Sleeping Through The Night Yet?".

A relaxed and positive attitude towards your baby's sleep helps baby relax and sleep well too.

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Step 2 - Dealing With Common Sleep Disturbances

Once you have all the above basics in place, your baby may still not be sleeping through the night. She may simply be too young to be able to, or one of the common sleep disturbances may be bothering her.

You can often easily avoid poor sleep due to a baby cold, teething, a wet diaper, baby separation anxiety, baby dreams, nightmares, night terrors in babies ...

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Step 3 - Get Support

Having a baby not sleeping through the night can be tough on you. Your baby may be cranky easily during the day and sleep deprivation will take its toll on you too.

If things get rough, don't hesitate to get support. This site, Baby-Sleep-Advice.com is here especially for you. Browse around to see if you can find the help you need. If not:

Ask me A Question for personalized baby sleep expert advice.

Discover a sleep method that appeals to you.

Learn from other parents's experience in the Sleepy Baby Story Collection and see how they tried to have their baby sleep through the night.


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