7 Tips for Better Sleep Habits
What are some things you can start right away with a newborn to establish healthy sleep habits? Remember, sleep is a skill your baby isn’t born with. You need to teach it! But even if you didn’t start as a newborn, you can implement these tips with babies and older children as well to get into a good sleep routine.
1. Get Rid of Props
If your child requires something in order to fall asleep, this is a prop. Props are a problem when it’s something your baby can’t control- bottle or breast, rocking, co-sleeping, in some cases the pacifier. When your child depends on something like this to fall asleep, they need you to come provide it again if they wake up in the middle of the night. On the contrary, things like a constant sound machine, rubbing fingers on a sleep sack or sucking a thumb are totally ok because baby has access to this all throughout the night. This helps independent sleep.
2. Consistency
You want to keep your day consistent. Children like having their world black and white, with routines and boundaries so they know what to expect. This applies to the crib- it is only for sleep. I know it’s a great containment device but if your child sometimes plays in the crib and sometimes sleeps in the crib, they won’t know which you are expecting when you put them in. Another thing to help with consistency is following age appropriate wake windows. This helps get your day on a sort of routine that baby’s body can get used to.
3. Early Bedtimes
Kids need a LOT of sleep at night. Up until around age 10, they should be getting 10-12 hours a night! In order to get this amount of sleep, an early bedtime is usually needed. Especially for the kids who need to be up early to go to daycare or school. Added bonus, with an early bedtime, you can get that break you need at night for some time for yourself!
4. Routine
Having a good routine helps with the consistency your children crave. Knowing the steps before bedtime can help reduce fighting and struggles. A good bedtime routine can also help the body calm down and relax in order to be ready for bed. Your bedtime routine should be between 20-30 minutes long. When your child is young, you are picking the routine, so pick good things to include- bath, brushing teeth, toilet, books, song, etc.
5. Naptime
If your child is still napping, having a short nap routine is important as well. This is only 5-10 minutes, but again, helps the body transition from play to sleep. Naps are important to avoid overtiredness which will help bedtime go smoother. Make sure the environment is good for sleep- dark, 68-72 degrees, quiet and comfortable.
6. Don’t Skip Sleep
If you have a child that doesn’t sleep well or wakes up early, maybe you’ve made the mistake of trying to reduce naps or move bedtime later to help. You’ve probably realized that regardless of how late they go to bed, kids wake up at the same time. The better your child sleeps during the day for naps, the better bedtime will go. This goes back to wake windows- if you keep them awake too long, they are overtired. An overtired child has a harder time falling asleep, staying asleep and gets less restful sleep. So don’t cut back on the amount of sleep your child is getting!
7. Don’t Fall Asleep While Feeding
This one goes back to tip #1, but it’s so important it needs to be restated. Sleep and milk can form a really strong association until baby only knows how to fall asleep when feeding. This can make putting baby down for bedtime and naps really easy, but then in the middle of the night you are having to get up to feed again every time to get them back to sleep. And it could cause short naps. Avoid this by moving to an Eat-Play-Sleep schedule and move eating to after baby wakes up. At bedtime, move the feed to earlier in the routine so baby isn’t falling asleep during it.
Starting to establish healthy sleep habits can help your child learn to sleep better. Once they learn to sleep independently, they will be able to continue to sleep well as they get older! If you need help to make these changes, I would love to guide you!
