Why Won't You Just Sleep?

You can’t wait to hit the sack, but your baby seems to have other ideas. ELISA CHIA gets expert tips on how you can help him to nod off.

- Elisa Chia

How much sleep does my newborn need?

DR PANG A newborn generally sleeps two to four hours at a time, adding up to about 18 hours a day. He wakes up hungry and needs to eat around the clock at first, so night and day don’t matter much.

But they matter to me! How can I set his body clock?

DR PANG You can behave differently. During the day, talk to him more while you feed him. At night, be more subdued and quiet. Keep the lighting dim. Eventually, he will catch on and begin to sleep more at night.

But to sleep through the night? How soon that happens will vary according to the individual, as well as factors like age and circumstances.

Will my baby sleep better in a sarong?

DR TOH It’s quite normal for anybody to feel sleepy with movement. That’s what a sarong does. Even when a mum cradles her child, her rocking helps to calm and coax the little one to sleep.

But here’s the more important question: Is it safe? Your baby might fall out from the sarong and, in the worst scenario, fracture his skull.

Thankfully, the incidence of severe head injury has dropped significantly because sarong sleeping is hardly practised now.

Should we tiptoe around our newborn to help him sleep longer?

DR KARP No, that’s a myth. Babies don’t like crashing and chaotic noises, but they desperately need rhythmic, rumbling noises when they’re asleep and upset. In the womb, they had that 24/7. When they get this white noise, they are much happier and better sleepers.

There are many CDs with recordings of womb sounds. You can get them from mobile apps, too – but a word of warning about smartphones: They release microwave radiation, so you should always put yours on airplane mode when you place it near your baby.