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.
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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)