08/04/2026
The no.1 thing I ask my clients to focus on is their baby’s bedtime. We don’t actually work on the overnight wakes to start with.
Why? Because bedtime is when they will find it easiest to fall asleep. It’s much harder to get your baby to get back to sleep in the night. Help them at bedtime first and the rest can follow.
Two factors help your baby fall asleep at bedtime. Sleep drive & circadian rhythm.
Sleep drive will help them fall asleep when they’ve had enough time awake since their nap (that feeling when you’re trying to stay awake in the evening to watch a film but your eyes keep closing and your head is nodding, that’s sleep drive).
Their circadian rhythm and production of the sleep hormone melatonin, will also be favourable to falling asleep more easily at bedtime.
It’s hard to get a baby to fall asleep easily if they’ve napped too long/too late in the day. (Over tiredness is much less common imho).
🧸Have a bedtime routine that lasts 30-45 minutes, consisting of 3-4 activities you do the same, night after night. Eg. Bath, milk, story. Babies feel safe and relaxed when they know what’s happening next, feeling safe leads much more easily to sleep.
Feed with a bedside light on, not in the dark. Then cuddles & story. Lights off.
👶🏼And when you’re ready to give it a go, at bedtime only to start with, try settling them in their cot/sleep space after their milk feed and story. Probably wait until at least 5 months, and much later is great. You’ll know when the time is right.
The idea is they slowly start to feel safe and secure in their cot awake and can drift off to sleep in there, just as they do in your arms atm.
And this can lead to less overnight wakes because sometimes when they stir in the night and aren’t hungry or in discomfort, they feel safe and don’t always need to be in your arms to get back to sleep.
It won’t happen overnight and they’ll need a lot of physical and verbal reassurance to start with…Stay with them and there’s no need to time anything, be responsive.
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