5 Biggest Myths About Baby Sleep

Baby Tips • 2024-01-08

5 Biggest Myths Well-nigh Victual Sleep

Should you let your victual “cry it out”? How many hours do babies sleep through the night? Here at the most worldwide myths well-nigh victual sleep I’ve encountered in my practice, plus the real scoop on each.

Myth #1: Babies Sleep 10 Hours Straight

This is one of the most worldwide myths well-nigh victual sleep. We think of sleeping through the night as something on the order of 11:00 PM-8:00 AM, or something similar. So naturally, many parents seem that sleeping through the night ways 8-10 hours for a baby.

Actually, most sleep experts pinpoint sleeping through the night as 6 hours without a feeding or the need to be soothed.

That may not sound like much, but once your victual is sleeping at least 6 hours without needing you, they’re once sleeping through the night. So your first goal with a younger victual (8-12 weeks) is approximately that period of time. And once they’ve achieved it, celebrate. It’s a milestone!

Once a victual is three months or older and starts sleeping through the night, they will likely sleep for 10-12 hours. It is important to be mindful of age-appropriate sleep patterns.

Myth #2: Babies Should Never Wake at Night

I know, I know. The whole point of contacting Sleep, Baby, Sleep is to find out how to get your victual to sleep through the night!

But here’s the caveat. Babies do wake during the night — that’s natural — but they should be worldly-wise to soothe themselves when to sleep, without fussing.

The reality is that all healthy infants, children and adults wits waking periods through the night. (This can hold true for long naps, too.) Just like you, your victual has a sleep-wake cycle that brings them just to the whet of wakefulness, surpassing they skid when off to sleep again.

This happens so routinely that plane though it happens to you too, you don’t remember it. Neither does your baby. So a little shifting virtually in the crib at night is natural. Your little one is simply pursuit her own natural cycle.

Myth #3: Cut Out Naps for Largest Night Sleep

I had a well-meaning friend suggest this to me with my daughter. You may have gotten this translating from a family member, a friend, or on an internet search.

I’m here to tell you that this is not the translating you or your victual need. Think well-nigh how you finger when you haven’t gotten unbearable rest. You may have plane had the wits of losing sleep the night before, yet finding it nonflexible to sleep the next night.

Any time you deliberately (or unwillingly) go without unobjectionable rest, you disrupt your endocrine system, the hormones that regulate your sleep-wake cycle.

For your baby, whose soul is in the learning stage of self-regulation, things can be plane worse. And when she’s awake, she’ll be cranky and less worldly-wise to work on her developmental milestones.

So don’t cut out naps in the hope that your victual will sleep largest at night. It won’t work, and it can hinder her development.

Myth #4: Babies Should Cry Themselves to Sleep

A little crying that winds lanugo to gentle self-soothing is fine. But letting a victual cry for half an hour or plane increasingly is not the way to get your victual to sleep through the night.

Ignoring a victual who is rhadamanthine increasingly upset in her crib can make her increasingly anxious. That ways it may unquestionably take longer for her to learn to fall unconsciousness on her own.

It can moreover get in the way of your relationship. Good relationships are based on trust. When you ignore your baby, she not only becomes increasingly frightened, but she realizes she can’t trust you.

Myth #5: All Babies Sleep Largest in a Silent Room

Actually, many babies goody from gentle, pediatrician-approved white noise. Professional opinions differ on why this is. I believe it is considering it helps plane out noise in the household, plus it can mimic the “woosh” sounds in the womb that the victual subconsciously remembers.

Just make sure you get a professional white noise machine made specifically for babies. The decibels should not be so upper that they can forfeiture your baby’s soft-hued hearing.

On the other hand, some babies do sleep largest in a very quiet room. Your baby’s mileage will vary on this question.

How to Get Help With Your Baby’s Sleep

Which brings me to this: no matter what words of wisdom (and busting of myths) you’ve heard, your victual might still defy the rules.

It isn’t her fault. And it isn’t yours. So what do you do?

If you’ve once wracked the myths well-nigh victual sleep but you’re not having success, t could be time to undeniability in the experts. I love helping parents and their babies have a happier household by teaching babies to sleep. I’d love to help you, too! Find out more: