How To Train Infants To Sleep Through The Night?- 11 Best Ways

Why is sleep training required?

Before going into the topic, let’s discuss sleep training and its benefits. As everyone knows, sleep is essential for our daily lives for growth and development. Specifically, for infants, getting adequate sleep is crucial for physical development, cognitive growth, emotional regulation, and immune system development. One of the solutions is to train infants to sleep through the night by self-soothing themselves, i.e., without any parental intervention or carers. You have to try the basic ways, like having a consistent bedtime routine and having a sleep schedule, providing a sleep-friendly environment, and also limiting the nighttime feeding gradually Still you were curious to know How to train infants to sleep through the night

WHO recommends training infants to sleep through the night when they are around 4-6 months old. we have included the recommendations below

Infants Age	Recommended sleep hours
up to 3 months	14-17 hours
4-11 months	12- 16 hours
12-2 years	14 hours
greater the 2 years	10-13 hours

Disturbed sleep symptoms

Suppose infants have reduced sleep, like numerous awakenings during the morning and night, insufficient sleep due to hyperactivity, sickness, frequent crying, etc. In that case, you should encourage sleep training, which assists in reducing sleep issues and promotes good mental health.

Set a proper bedtime routine

• Do some calming activities like warm bath, light massages, singing lullabies, reading bedtime stories, setting humidifiers, etc.
• Make the room at a reasonable temperature and lower the lights for restful nighttime sleep.
• Maintain the same place for naps and nighttime sleep to make them more comfortable.
• maintain zero stimulation, like watching TV before bedtime and some children will throw tantrums handle it in the postive way.
• Creating a bedtime routine is good. But make sure to put more effort into maintaining it every night at the same time.
• maintain the consistent bedtime and wakeup schedule even on weekends or even on vacation.

Minimal contact naps at night

Zero-contact nap means allowing your baby to sleep alone without parental intervention. The first step in training your infants to sleep through the night is to maintain zero-contact naps from the very start. Say around when they are 3 months old.

How to make it work and its benefits?

• Make them sleep in the baby crib, which is a safe sleeping space for them.Sleeping independently in the crib might seem to be difficult at the beginning, but they begin to adapt to it on the go.
• Also, they get uninterrupted sleep in the crib instead of a rocker or a grandma’s saree. [Note: If you stop swinging the rocker, they will be disturbed and start screaming.]
• For a second time, mom gets some time to spend with the firstborn child.
• Don’t let the bay fall asleep on you. Yes, I can understand if you are a new mom; it’s a bit tough to digest because you want all those baby cuddles. As a mom, I am not against it. You can have cuddles when they are awake.

Dont promote sleep Props

Sleep props or crutches are the things that aid them in sleep, such as pacifiers, co-sleeping, and bouncy seats. Hello mommies, be practical. Babies aren’t aware of any pacifier in the world. So don’t introduce them; else they’ll get used to it, and it’s difficult for you.The longer you wait, the more difficulty is on the way. Remember, if you don’t want your child to keep pacifiers, then cut off the habit immediately.

Thinking about how to train infants to sleep through the night without sleep crutches?Yes, the term is self-soothing. Trust their growing body, and they can do it. Slowly, they learn by themselves to self-soothe, like how they take breastfeeding from you. To make them learn, start putting them in the crib when they are awake. which is, when they feel drowsy, not in a fully awake mood.

Follow wake window by age

Quality naps are important as equally to the wake window. The wake window time refers to between two naps. That is between the time they wake up from the nap and again when you put them down to the next nap also, there is no specific recommendation for infants sleep because it varies from one to one. But will share the nap and wake window information in general.

Infants wake window

Infant age	Duration
Birth to 1 month	0.5 to 1 hour
1 to 3 months	1 to 2 hours
3 to 4 months	1.25 to 2.5 hours
5 to 7 months	2 to 4 hours
7 to 10 months	2.5 to 4.5 hours
10 to 12 months	3 to 6 hours

Follow age-appropriate wake window timing that suits your baby so that babies will be more receptive to sleeping patterns. Then they settle into sleep cycles more easily.

How does the wake window relate to sleep?

• Putting them down to sleep early makes them awake or play in bed.
• Putting them down to sleep late to bed will make them tired, and they go cranky.

Hence, sleep patterns should be practiced. And yes, sleep regression happens sometimes; try to figure out your infant’s wake window and adjust accordingly. Because some babies settle them to sleep quite easily, some need flexibility even when routines are already set, and some take longer nap than others and prefer dark rooms and remember, “This too shall pass.”Every phase of life you go through is going to remain for some time.

Maintain minimal movements at night

• Use as minimal light at night as possible. It makes it easier for babies to sleep well.
• Always keep the room quiet and peaceful, and avoid loud noises that really disturb their sleep cycle.
• Keep the room ventilated to get some fresh air.
• Not required to change the nappies often until their nappies are full.

Let’s see some common reasons that your baby won’t sleep.

• over tired or not tired
• over stimulation
• sickness
• hungry
• inconsistent schedule
• over-fed
• hyper senssitive
• bad sleep association

Comforting Your Baby During Teething

Okay, teething is the period of eruption of teeth. Actually, its breaking and coming out through the gums. For some babies, the first teeth appear between 4-6 months, and some have to wait until one year, and the whole process continues till 2-3 years.

I believe your mom already can understand the discomfort associated with teething. Let’s see how to train your infants to sleep through the night while they are in the teething phase.

• Involve your baby to learn about self-soothe. so that baby won’t get disturbed much due to teething discomfort.
• Please pay attention to their sleeping cues (like eye rubbing, yawing, etc.) and set up a routine so that a small disruption in night teething won’t cause you much despair.
• In the teething phase, they want to bite something often. So giving them comfort by rubbing their gums gently with fingers or a clean cloth might be relaxing for them.
• Try to offer any frozen teething toys before bedtime or nap time to numb their sore gums

Organize Daytime Activities

Here are a few suggestions to train your infants to sleep through the night. Prepare yourself for how to train them to sleep well by following gentle methods. That is, without any tears at night. its just like how to start solid foods (BLW) for a baby after 6 months. No worries, if you are new to the term BLW (baby-led weaning), we will discuss it in detail in another blog.

• First, plan the month (say around 4-6 months) for wake-up time and bedtime schedule based on the baby’s needs.
• Avoid the sleep training approach if you have any other plans, like vacation or festival mode.
• Make sure the baby is wearing a comfortable, breathable dress.
• Reduce noise levels and create a friendly environment so that it helps your baby transition to sleepy mode.
• Incorporating daytime tummy activity and playful interactions with colourful toys will help to make them tired at the end of the day.
• Don’t introduce new engaging toys in the evening or before bedtime.
• Don’t think skipping afternoon naps will help them sleep earlier. Because their internal clock system is quite intelligent. (You need to wake up all midnight.) Note down: Naps are necessary.
• Make sure your baby is well fed to prevent hunger distractions during the night.
• Spend outdoor playtime with your baby, like a stroller walk or going to the park, and simply allow them to watch whats happening around them. Especially try to expose them to early morning sunlight to get enough vitamin D for the whole day.
• Avoid using phones or TV before bedtime.I personally believe we, as parents, should avoid both TV and phone completely during the first two years. And yes, we can allow video calls. That too, keep your phone at one particular place for calls. This will help in the future. [Note: Discuss with your partner in prior to avoid misunderstandings.]
• For a healthy sleep-wake cycle, maintain the same wake-up time, nap time, and bedtime. so that they won’t get confused and know that its time to sleep.
• Also, prepare yourself for other common illnesses that disturb an infant’s sleep, like an indication of the increase in temperature, any dispersion rash or heat rash, etc.

Final wrapping

As they grow, their sleep requirements vary. So alter them when necessary. Remember, every baby is unique, and analyse which works best for your family and take action, respectively. Training requires a lot of time; it’s not an overnight miracle. Stick to the routine regularly and be patient and consistent for the outcome. Mommies, you are not the only parents to struggle with infant sleep, and also never hesitate to contact professional assistance in case of trouble with infant sleep patterns regularly. Also, scale up your understanding bad parenting . We hope that you got enough ideas about how to train infants to sleep through the night

Reference 1: https://www.who.int/tools/your-life-your-health/life-phase/newborns-and-children-under-5-years/making-sure-newborns-and-children-under-5-years-sleep-safely

Reference 2 : https://www.unicef.org/parenting/child-care/baby-sleep