Everything You Need to Know About Newborn Sleep
Wake-ups, feedings, naps, sleepless nights – yikes! There’s nothing scarier than navigating newborn sleep… especially if you’re bringing home your first little one.
I remember the first time I brought home my son, I was a complete mess. While at the hospital things seemed so much more simple - I had tons of help from the nurses and doctors. Then the first night home, I stayed up all night holding my son on the couch crying and in pain. I actually ended up having a UTI. I also remember my sister calling that next day and saying she wished she could be here to help me, and again I just started crying. There was lots and lots of crying - both me and my son.
I started to read up on newborn sleep, and there were so many contradictory articles and books, it was all so confusing and stressful, and that just made it all feel so much scarier; I was fearful of making the wrong decision for my little one. (And let’s face it, I was terrified of the idea of getting no sleep for months on end!)
But I did what I knew best and turned to evidence-based research on sleep. Through trial and error and paying so many dues to figure out how to get my baby boy to sleep, I came up with a map (so-to-speak) that led my little one to sleep through the night at 4 months along with three predictable naps during the day. And when my next little one, a baby girl, came along a couple years later, I started shaping her healthy sleep habits even earlier and she was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old! Amazing, right!?
Here’s some good news: you can feel that I’ve-got-this, my-baby’s-sleeping-through-the-night, it’s-not-so-scary feeling for yourself too! I’m actually sharing everything I know about newborn sleep and setting those healthy sleep rhythms in my upcoming workshop There’s Nothing Scarier Than Newborn Sleep on Wednesday, Oct. 27!
We’re going to dive into setting up rhythms for you and baby, knowing what’s developmentally appropriate, knowing how to help calm a fussy newborn, knowing how to navigate short naps, swaddling, pacifiers… and so much more! You’ll walk away knowing all this, PLUS, you’ll get a month’s access to my Healthy Little Village (with follow-up calls and even more practical tips) FREE!
It took a while, but I’ve got newborn sleep figured out, and I’m passing along some of that knowledge to you. Here’s a few things every parent should know about newborn sleep.
10 Facts About Newborn Sleep
1. For the first few days after birth, it’s normal for newborns to be extremely sleepy.
Typically, newborns sleep a total of about 14 to 17 hours a day. That’s broken down to about 8 to 9 hours of sleep in the daytime and a total of about 8 hours at night. Most babies don’t start sleeping through the night (6 to 8 hours) until at about 3 months of age.
2. Newborn sleep windows are extreeeeemely short.
This might not be much of a surprise since they sleep so much! Most newborns can only stay awake for 45 minutes to an hour before they start dozing again. And if you keep them up any longer than that, you run the risk of them becoming overtired, making it even more difficult for them to fall asleep.
3. Newborns are still establishing their circadian rhythms, which is why their sleep is all wonky.
It’s totally normal for your newborn’s sleep to not have any real pattern or rhythm, and that’s because their circadian rhythms aren’t yet established. They can’t tell the difference between days and nights until closer to when they’re 6 to 8 weeks old. But you can help them out a bit by making sure at night, they’re snoozing in a dark room. Eventually, they’ll start making that night-time/dark-time means sleep-time association and things will go smoother.
4. Your newborn will still give you some sleepy cues.
Even though they don’t have their sleep rhythms down pat yet, your newborn will still let you know when they’re ready for sleep. A couple sleepy cues to look out for: staring off, avoiding eye contact, and slowing down in activity. Make sure you pay attention to these cues, you don’t want to miss them and have to deal with an overtired baby!
5. Newborns are light sleepers.
Newborns spend most of their sleep time in active or REM sleep. This means they don’t reach a very deep stage of sleep, so they wake easily, transition between sleep cycles frequently, and rarely sleep for long stretches. So if you see your little stirring, give them a few minutes before rushing in to get them up; they may just be in active sleep. And, BTW, light sleep is actually a good thing! Research shows that it may protect babies from SIDS.
6. A swaddle will help your newborn sleep better.
Swaddling means wrapping a newborn in a blanket like a little burrito, in order to keep their arms and legs from flailing around when they sleep. (They’re already light sleepers, right? You don’t want another reason for them to wake up too early.) Swaddling can also make your little feel safe and cozy. But once your baby starts rolling over on their own, it’s time to give up the swaddle.
7. Newborns need to feed around the clock.
Newborn babies have tiny stomachs, so they can’t eat very much during their feedings. That means your little is going to need to eat frequently in order to not be hungry. Your baby will wake every couple of hours to eat; breastfed babies feed about every 2 to 3 hours and bottle-fed babies tend to feed about every 3 to 4 hours.
8. The ABCs of newborn sleep are: alone, back, crib.
Babies should sleep Alone. Babies should sleep on their Backs. And babies should sleep in a Crib or bassinet/pack-n-play.
9. You can’t sleep train a newborn.
I know, this isn’t exactly what you want to hear, and you may even be a little surprised to hear this. Newborns are too young to start making associations, which are a necessary part of sleep training. However, you CAN start putting healthy sleep habits in place from week one, that way once they start making bedtime associations, you’ve already got those rhythms in place!
10. It’s okay to ‘do what works.’
Because your little can’t make sleep associations yet, that means it’s okay to just do what you gotta do to get them to sleep. Nursing them to sleep? Sleeping in the swing? Holding them during naps? All that is a-ok because you won’t really create any “bad” habits in the first few months. But while it’s totally fine to do whatever works to get your little to sleep as a newborn, it’s always a good idea to start establishing healthy sleep habits early.
Don’t miss your chance to sign up for my LIVE newborn sleep workshop happening THIS MONTH! You can save your spot for There’s Nothing Scarier Than Newborn Sleep by clicking here!