Fix The Sleep

If your nights are an endless cycle of wake-ups, you’re doing something wrong. Try these tweaks.

- Heather Gowen Walsh

Stop being his bed.

Moms and dads tend to spend too much time rocking and holding their infant at the beginning of the night. “As a result, a baby learns to fall asleep with this help—and then when he wakes up during the night he can’t get back to sleep alone,” says Dr. Judith Owens, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, US. Anything goes during the first few weeks, as you attempt to get your baby to bed however you can. But by 3 months, put him down in the crib drowsy but awake. Although he’ll cry for a while, soon he’ll learn to drift off by himself.

Avoid napping on the go.

As much as possible, your baby should nap in her crib. “If she often falls asleep in a stroller or a car seat, she’s going to associate motion with sleep and have a hard time nodding off without it,” says Dr. Jodi Mindell, Associate Director of the Sleep Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, US. Your rule of thumb? Aim for 50 to 75 per cent of her naps to be in a crib.

Separate feeding from bedtime.