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At what age should I be looking at getting my baby into a sleep routine?

How beneficial is sleep training?

My friend has an 8 month old little girl who has decided that 4am is the perfect time to start her day. They have tried everything they can think of to get her to resettle but she wont. They have resorted to taking her for a walk every morning at that time and invariably she is falling back asleep again for a good hour or so, but they cant replicate this in her cot. Any suggestions?

I know a good bedtime routine is important. But besides doing the bath, final feed and tuck in, what else should I be doing?

Hi,

Is it better to rock my baby to sleep than put her in her crib, or put her down before she's asleep and let her go off that way?

Thanks

My 6 month old will only sleep on me at night, I want to start sleep training but not sure if she’s old enough. We’ve been Co-sleeping since she was born and I’m quite happy with it at the moment but I want my bed back at some point!! I would love some guidance about how to go about it & when. I have another daughter so am conscious I can’t be too tired because I need to look after her too. We don’t have a set sleep schedule in the day or night, I just take her lead but she sleeps between 10pm & 8am on average, only waking for a feed & then straight back to sleep (I’m also exclusively breastfeeding, she won’t take a bottle). Any advice is much appreciated!

Hi Emma, how many naps are right for LOs, how long should they be and should I wake him up if he hasn't slept much but it's getting late? I don't want to replace nighttime sleep with naps during the day.

also, I've read that white noise and pink noise put adults into more restful sleep cycles. Will it benefit my baby too?

Does it work to give bigger feeds at bedtime to get babies to get them to sleep longer? My baby eats well and drops off to sleep but doesn't sleep for long periods.

my baby will only go to sleep if i lie with him and it takes hours.

Our second child has been an awful sleeper from the start, however I would like to try and drop the use of her dummy as a sleep aid. She will be 2 in January, and I would love for her to stop using it by then. She only has it for naps and at night, but she's recently stopped giving it to us on waking, holding onto it for longer and is now waking in the night crying for it if she can't find it (which has only started in the last month). Are there any tips on how we can remove it with minimal fuss or is this going to disrupt her sleep even more?

My baby will only sleep when we are holding her, as soon as we put her down she wakes up and cries. How can we get out of this cycle without leaving her to cry for hours (which we just can't do). Thank you.

I have a 1.5 year old boy normally sleep through the night but passed 2 weeks he’s been asleep then sits up crying but when we go do comfort him he’s still asleep on us - this happens multiple times throughout the night and we just don’t understand why. 

I’m stressed and struggling with it and it’s really getting me down thinking will this ever end and he will go back to normal.

Hi Eve,

Thank you so much for your message.

So when we are thinking about a sleep routine we might be talking about A) your baby's bedtime/sleep routines - which do not necessarily revolve around a specific time per se but are a series of activities which happen every night in the same order prior to sleep e.g., bath, massage, feed, bed or B) having a daily routine whereby which your baby might wake, nap and go to bed around the same time every day.

In terms of A) which is series of activities which happen every day prior to bedtime- you can start this at any point although realistically you might find that naturally you develop more of a distinctive of a bedtime routine around 8 weeks (56 sleep days) which typically coincides with the release of melatonin in the evening.

The purpose of a bedtime routine in which the same activities happen every day in more or less the same order is that they help signal to your baby that sleep time is approaching and they can help your little one to transition from wakefulness to being calm and ready to sleep.

If however, your question is referring to B) having a daily routine in place whereby which your baby might have set number of naps happening around the same time every day.

From a biological perspective most babies will not be able to consistently stabilise naps by the clock until their biological clock is fully established which is typically seen around 6/7 months.

Prior to this point however, to help support your babies developing and circadian rhythms I do recommend Anchoring the Body Clock and ideally stabilising the time that your baby wakes up in the morning to a set 30 minutes window and if possible stabilising the time that they go to bed in the evening as well.

I hope that this helps answer your question and if you need any more help you can find me over @helpbabysleep.

Thanks so much

Emma