How to Correct or Prevent Your Newborn From Getting Their Days and Nights Mixed Up
Do you have a newborn who has their days and nights mixed up (meaning they sleep alllll day long for you but think it’s time to party during the night? Does that sound familiar? Or are you hoping to prevent that from happening because you’ve heard it’s a thing? This is super common with newborns, but luckily there are some ways to help prevent and/or correct day/night confusion.
Our sweet little newborns are born with no concept of day or night and their internal clocks are not very developed until closer to 8-12 weeks. That’s why so many newborns end up getting their days and nights mixed up.
IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
Four ways to prevent and/or correct your newborn’s day / night confusion
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
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To help prevent or correct day / night confusion there are three main things you can do:
1. Follow newborn wake windows.
Wake windows are basically just the capacity for how long a child at a certain age can handle staying awake between naps. Newborns can only handle a very short amount of awake time.
Offer your newborn a nap every 45-60 minutes.
Many babies won’t just fall asleep when they’re tired, so it’s our job to offer them naps at the right times, under the right conditions.
The other side of this coin is that a lot of parents think that if their newborn stays awake for long periods of time during the day, they’ll sleep better at night. So we see parents trying to correct day/night confusion by keeping their newborns awake for several hours at a time during the day, but this is actually a huge myth!
Over-tiredness in newborns looks like hyperactivity (crying, screaming, and being unable to settle for sleep). So if parents are having their newborns stay awake for longer than 45-60 minutes at a time, or they intentionally trying to keep them awake for extended periods of time, this can actually worsen nighttime sleep because they are so overstimulated.
2. Cap (or limit) your newborn’s nap to two hours per nap during daytime hours
So yes, we’re asking you to wake your sleeping baby. This is another myth, that i really really dislike because it really hinders families and makes sleep even harder. You want to limit your babies naps to 2 hours for a few reasons. 1st, because your baby also needs to eat! You don’t want to let your baby sleep so long that they end up missing daytime feedings. Second, you don’t want your baby to get all of their sleep during the day. You want there to be a good balance. Newborns need a TON of sleep, so the 2 hours per nap is a great guideline to work with.
Click HERE to get your child’s perfect daily schedule!
3. Keep it as dark and as calm as possible during night wakings and feedings
Try turning on a nightlight during wakings instead of the TV or overhead light. Turn it off when you’re done. This will also help you, mom or dad, sleep better. When you turn on all the lights in the middle of the night, the light actually sends a signal to your brain that tells it its time to wake up now! After you’re done feeding your sweet newborn, it will be much harder for you to fall back into restorative sleep if you’ve been in a bright room or scrolling on your phone (the blue light from your phone is terrible for your sleep!).
4. Make sure your baby gets plenty of sunlight during the day and during wake times, especially first thing in the morning.
Get out for plenty of walks together or lay your baby in the sunshine! This will start to help your baby’s internal clock learn when daytime is vs nighttime.
Day / night confusion can be really really hard and discouraging on new parents. Please know that it is completely normal! I hope hearing some of these tips is encouraging to you and that you know it’s not going to last forever. It won’t be an overnight fix, but with consistency, these four things WILL help your baby sleep better and get their days and nights figured out!
If you have a newborn or you’re expecting and you want to establish healthy sleep habits from the start, our Newborn Sleep class was created just for you. It’s an online class we created for parents of newborns (0-12 weeks old) to help your baby sleep better from day one.
If you thought this episode today was helpful, you will LOVE the class. This course is everything you need to encourage healthy sleep habits, parent with confidence, and love the newborn stage.
We also offer add-on personalized support packages where you can work 1:1 with us at any point during the newborn stage. You can even text us right from the hospital!
Use code PODCAST at checkout to take 10% off any of our classes or services.