How To Get A Newborn Baby To Sleep – 15 Top Tips

Having a baby that doesn’t sleep well can be exhausting. These tips on how to get a newborn baby to sleep will help you and your baby get some much needed rest.

 

Having Problems Getting Baby To Sleep?

Being at home with your newborn is a magical time, but as rewarding as caring for your baby is it can be exhausting.

When baby doesn’t sleep well that means you don’t sleep well and possibly the same will go for other members of the household. 

 

You get up with baby, you feed them, burp them, and change their diaper. You rock them, sing to them and do everything in your power to get baby to sleep. 

 

The end result is a tired cranky baby and a tired cranky mom. Fatigue and overwhelm will may set in and you may feel like you can’t cope.

 

Of course this is just down to sleep deprivation and knowing how to get a newborn baby to sleep  and just implementing a few strategies can greatly improve your baby’s and in turn your chances of getting a good nights sleep.

 

 

• As difficult as this sounds try not to let your baby sleep for more than 2.5 hours during the day. Your newborn will need to sleep a lot but try to encourage periods where baby baby is awake for a time between naps. If your baby’s naps are not too long during the day then this should help them sleep better at night.

 

• But don’t let baby stay awake for too long either. This could cause them to get overtired, fussy, and cause them difficulty going back to sleep.

• Try to stick to a bedtime routine at the same time each night. This would involve a bath, a feed, wrapping up baby, cuddles, and then putting baby down for the night. If you follow the same routine as consistently as possible this will give your baby cues that it’s time to go to sleep.

 

• During sleep your baby’s body will frequently jerk, this startles them awake. Swaddling baby before bedtime will reduce the body’s movements and therefore reduce the chances of them waking up. Here is how to swaddle your baby.

 

• Encourage baby to fall asleep independently. Avoid rocking them to sleep. Put them down for the night when they are sleepy but still awake. Then if they do wake up during the night they are more likely to drift back off on their own.

 

• Be clever with lighting. Let plenty of sunlight in during the day. Try and keep rooms as light and bright as possible. As evening comes gradually reduce the light. You may find it useful to have dimmer switches so you can start to dim the lights a couple of hours before bedtime. Use a small, dim night light where baby sleeps and if they do wake up during the night avoid switching on lights as much as possible. Blackout curtains may also be helpful if the early morning sunlight causes your baby to wake too early.

 

• Be just as strategic with temperature. Like us babies will sleep better if they are not too hot. Keep the room warmer throughout the day but cool it down at night. The best temperature to promote your baby’s sleep is between 65 and 70F.

 

• When your baby is sleepy try not to over stimulate them. Avoid eye contact, loud chatter or singing. Talk in a calm, low voice to gently soothe them back to sleep.

 

• Use a good quality nighttime diaper. This way you can reduce changes if baby wakes up which may cause them to wake up fully. Only change the diaper if it’s soiled.

 

• Get your baby used to noise. If you purposely whisper and try not to make any noise at all then baby will only be able to sleep in silence. Obviously this is not possible to maintain and the slightest noise will wake your baby up. You may find it useful to use a white noise machine in baby’s room to help them get used to background noise.