Yahoo's Expert Guide to Sleep: 0-6 months

Yahoo UK

Sisters and sleep experts Eve and Gem explain the science of sleep for newborns up to six months old, giving some practical tips to improve sleep for the whole family.

Transcript

00:00 In this video, we're going to be talking to you about sleep in the first six months and

00:04 setting expectations about what is biologically normal.

00:07 And we're also going to help you lay the foundations for best possible sleep in the first six months.

00:12 Shall we begin?

00:13 Let's.

00:14 It's really important that we normalise broken sleep in the early months.

00:24 It is biologically normal for your baby to wake frequently and to feed often.

00:28 It's just what nature intended.

00:30 So baby sleep cycles differ greatly from adult sleep cycles in the first three months when

00:34 they have a baby sleep brain and they move only in the four month mark over to adult

00:38 brain sleep cycles.

00:40 Circadian rhythms sort of get into flow about the three month mark with melatonin beginning.

00:45 But all you need to know is that there is plenty that you can do to help your baby regulate

00:49 into as sound sleep as possible.

00:51 And then you can be present and tune into your baby and enjoy the early months because

00:54 they're so precious and fleeting.

00:56 Yeah, they're hard enough without worrying about whether your baby's going to be a good

00:59 sleeper or not.

01:00 You cannot go wrong in the first six months if you give all the nurture on demand that

01:04 they could possibly want and need.

01:06 As of today, safe sleep guidelines are that your baby should be in the same room as you

01:10 for the first six months of their life.

01:13 We often get asked about environment and what is the best sleep setting.

01:17 But the truth is that every baby is different.

01:19 Some like motion for sleep, some like contact for sleep, some like being left alone to sleep.

01:24 So it really depends on your baby.

01:26 Absolutely.

01:27 Try not to think of it as a prescribed checklist for a perfect sleep environment and try to

01:31 think more about, does my baby like some white noise and do they prefer it dark?

01:35 Do I get a better nap then?

01:36 And just simply go with that.

01:38 Your gut will guide you towards what your baby wants and needs.

01:41 Mine used to love the hair dryer or the hoover being on.

01:44 That's it.

01:45 Bit of natural white noise, you can't go wrong.

01:46 One of our favourite tips to share is the nap gap or wake window little tool that we

01:51 use.

01:52 This is probably going to be the single biggest thing that will help your day sleep and therefore

01:56 your night sleep in the first six months.

01:58 And that is the nap gap rule, which is that for the first four weeks, when your baby is

02:02 four weeks old, they only need to be awake for just 45 minutes.

02:06 And then every single month after that, up to the age of 12 months, you simply add 15

02:11 minutes.

02:12 So at three months, you'd be looking at just over an hour, an hour and a quarter.

02:15 And then at six months, they'd be awake for around two hours.

02:17 Yes, if your baby is tired, then you might need to change the nap gap and tweak it.

02:23 It's all about being baby led and not clock watching, baby watching.

02:27 Absolutely.

02:28 And feeding before a nap.

02:29 Feeding before a nap.

02:30 Isn't that just huge?

02:31 It's so important not to separate feeding from sleep.

02:34 So feeding our babies before all sleep helps us to work with nature.

02:38 In regards to your sleep, because we know that sleep is going to be broken, it's really

02:43 important that you can hold space for yourself and rest when you're able to.

02:47 Absolutely.

02:48 And a really good way to do that is to stay in your pyjamas and say yes to the help when

02:52 it's offered, because trust us, those offers of help will evaporate so quickly.

02:55 Yeah.

02:56 And saying yes to the help, and that might be letting your partner do a dream feed so

03:01 you get that really nice stint of sleep for the first part of the night.

03:04 It can make such a difference.

03:05 Yeah, protecting those first three to five hours was an absolute game changer for me

03:09 with my third.

03:10 And I did it that way afterwards because it really can be the absolute difference getting

03:14 three to five solid hours initially.

03:17 And that's the main bit of advice that we would have for you about how you can protect

03:21 your own rest, because it is broken, but just remember that much longer stints of sleep

03:25 are truly just around the corner.

03:28 If you want to learn more about improving your child's sleep at different ages, be sure

03:32 to check out our other videos on the Yahoo website.

03:35 And catch us speaking live at the Baby Show events throughout the year.

03:39 Follow us on @CalmAndBrightSleepSupport on socials.

03:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:46 (upbeat music)

Category

Transcript

Recommended