1. Watch for “signs of sleepiness.” The key to helping babies learn to self-soothe to sleep is to get them to bed before they get too tired. If a baby is already crying, it’s too late. The baby is already too tired. Signs of sleepiness to watch for include yawning, rubbing your eyes, staring into space, and a general decrease in activity level. The last two “signs of drowsiness” mentioned can be very subtle, so she should watch closely until she learns to easily recognize signs of drowsiness in her own child. The decrease in activity level may seem like a slight “pause” in your child’s activity or play. If you don’t recognize this pause, you may let your baby stay awake too long. Once they get too tired, their energy level can actually increase so that the baby seems “on” or overstimulated. If your baby starts to cry, it means that she is already very tired. When a baby or child is too tired, her body releases cortisol, a stress hormone, and the baby will seem to fight sleep. If you start to soothe your baby and put him to bed when she begins to show signs of drowsiness, it will be much easier for the baby to fall asleep than if she starts to soothe him when she is already too tired.
2. Respect the 1-2 hour window. Initially, newborns and young babies cannot stay awake for very long. For the first few days to a week, your baby is likely to sleep most of the time between feedings. You may even have to wake your baby up to feed him, sometimes. After you come out of this early period of heavy sleep, your baby will start to have more alert moments, but you’ll need to be extra alert to start soothing your baby back to sleep when you start noticing signs of drowsiness, even if it’s… It’s only been fifteen minutes or so! If you let your baby get too tired, then it’s likely that he or she will start to get into the cycle of crying and falling asleep, which will make your baby more tired and cry more… During the first few months, your goal is to should be to have your baby back in bed no more than two hours after he wakes up. This includes feeding time, perhaps some play or tummy time, and the lulling-to-sleep routine, which may or may not include other feedings. Let me emphasize again that you are not only starting to soothe your baby after two hours, but you should try to finish soothing your baby and have him back in bed at the end of the two-hour window. If you follow this rule, it may seem like you’d nap your baby many, many times a day, but it actually fits pretty well with Dr. Weissbluth’s suggested nap schedule. The way it worked for my daughter was that we would start the day around 7:00 to 7:30 in the morning with her first feeding of the day. Then, after a diaper change, some tummy time, and another feeding, she would take her first nap around 9 am and sleep until around 11 or 11:30. The afternoon nap started around 1:00 p.m. and lasted until 2:30 p.m. or 3:00 p.m. His third nap would be the shortest, around 4:00 p.m. until 4:45 p.m., and then naturally she would be ready to go to sleep around 6:15 pm to 6:30 pm
3. Learn your baby’s natural sleep rhythms. During the first few months, your baby’s sleep times may be somewhat random, but if she follows the first two guidelines, she will eventually begin to notice a pattern as to when her baby begins to show signs of sleepiness. These correspond to your baby’s natural sleep-wake rhythms. Start paying attention to the hours on the clock when you see signs of drowsiness. When you see that they happen around the same time every day, you can start planning your daily routines around these times and set them up as your baby’s regular naps. Once this natural schedule emerges, she won’t have to be as vigilant for signs of drowsiness, as she knows what time she should have her baby in bed. If you have trouble seeing this pattern, you can try keeping a sleep log for your baby in which you record all the times your baby falls asleep and wakes up, for a week or more, and then look at the sleep log to see if some pattern emerges.
4. Develop consistent relaxing routines at bedtime. Most people are familiar with the concept of bedtime routines, and the earlier you start them, the better. A pre-sleep routine can be as simple as a feeding and a lullaby, or it can include a bath, a story, a stroller ride, whatever helps your baby fall asleep. The important thing is to keep the routine constant. It can change and evolve as your baby grows, but for the most part it should be the same every day. This helps your child associate certain activities with sleep and eases the transition from waking time to bedtime. Over time, bedtime routines will help your child learn to wind down to sleep. Although consistency is important, you can vary it a bit depending on the circumstances. For example, if your child is excited about an unusually busy or fun day, she may want to lengthen the relaxing routine a bit to help her calm down and get ready for bed. You can also use a different routine for daytime naps compared to nighttime relaxing routines, as daytime sleep differs qualitatively from nighttime sleep. Just keep the daytime routines consistent each day and the nighttime routines consistent each night. One more tip for soothing routines: It’s fine to include a ride in a stroller, a ride in the car, or some time in a baby swing, if that’s what it takes to put your baby to sleep, but once the baby is asleep, you need to stop the movement and, if possible, transfer the baby to his crib or crib. Still sleep is the best. In other words, babies don’t sleep as soundly when they’re moving as they do when they’re standing up.
5. Try to go to bed earlier.This may sound counterintuitive, but when kids get too tired, their bodies release stress hormones to keep them awake. These hormones actually create a heightened state of arousal that makes it difficult for them to fall asleep (see step 1). By moving your child’s bedtime forward 15 to 20 minutes each night until you find a time when your baby or child will fall asleep easily, you’ll ensure that he or she doesn’t get too tired before bedtime. Many parents fear that if they put their children to bed earlier, they will wake up earlier. In fact, the opposite happens. Children who used to wake up too early actually sleep later and wake up happier when they go to bed earlier. The more rested a child is, the easier it will fall asleep and stay asleep.
While all children are unique, there are certain principles that apply to all children. If you use these 5 guidelines to help your baby fall asleep, you’ll be well on your way to helping your child develop healthy sleep habits. However, as with all generic guidelines, feel free to adapt them to your particular situation and your child.