Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night: 7 Tricks

Learn these simple tricks to help your baby sleep through the night without problems

Reviewed and approved by the psychologist María Alejandra Castro Arbeláez.

Written by Marisol Rendón Manrique

Last update: 27 December, 2022

Helping your baby sleep through the night is a challenge for many parents, and it can be especially difficult through those first weeks at home. While their sleep habits develop and adapt to the family’s routine, it’s common for newborns to wake up many times in the space of a few hours.

It’s important to establish a healthy bedtime routine right from the start to avoid long-term problems.

“Sleep is an evolving process that needs the nervous system to mature. It’s vital for adequate physical growth and the neurological and emotional development of children. Newborns wake up approximately every 3 hours, which is regulated by their feeding schedule.”

Moreover, not only is it important that children develop good sleep habits; you also need enough time to rest as a parent.

For this reason, this article provides some simple but effective strategies to get a relaxing and rejuvenating night’s rest. That way you and your partner will be ready to face the new day recharged with energy.

How to help your baby sleep through the night

1. Offer your baby something to eat before putting him to bed

Before going to bed, see if your baby wants to be fed, whether it be breast or formula. That way, you’ll assure that it’s not hunger that is interrupting his sleep. 

After feeding, put the baby in bed and you’ll notice that he’s awake but sleepy from having just had a bottle or been breastfed. This will make it easier for the baby to sleep for longer periods.

2. Try to make it fun

It’s completely normal that young children resist bedtime. Establishing a fun and organized routine will help them become accustomed to going to bed at the same time every night.

Read a story to your child or dedicate a few minutes to one last game. Make a chart that illustrates all of the steps to follow in your child’s bedtime routine before going to bed each day.

Remember that instilling good habits takes perseverance but also contributes to the wellbeing of your baby and the family.

3. Put your baby to bed early

You might think that putting your baby to bed early means he’ll wake up before morning, but that’s not how it usually works. Indeed, newborns and babies up to around 1-year-old wake up less frequently and sleep for more time when they go to bed around 8 pm in the evening.

It’s for this reason that encouraging an early bedtime right from the start will help children to have fewer difficulties in waking up when they start attending school.

4. Know the characteristics of each age

Newborns only stay calmly awake for periods of 20 to 30 minutes. By about the age of three or four months, the period when they’re alert and content lasts for about an hour, approximately, for most babies.

Knowing this, you’ll have a clearer sense when you should change their diaper and feed them so they’re calmer and can sense the routine and are ready to take a nice, long nap.

Other options for helping your baby sleep through the night

5. Avoid overstimulating the baby

For a baby who is just getting to know the world, everything around him is new and it stimulates his senses. Therefore, when it’s time to sleep, you should avoid doing anything that can distract the baby and that will keep him stimulated and awake.

Give your baby a clean and calm space that is pleasant and without objects with a lot of color or sound. This way, his nervous system will soon relax.

6. Use your baby’s blanket so he’ll be comfortable and warm and sleep all night

Another trick to help your baby sleep through the night is to make sure he’s comfortable with his blankets and baby bedding. Newborns come from a soft environment that is comfortable and secure. Being in their mother’s womb made them feel protected.

In this light, it makes sense that babies feel more comfortable and calm if they’re wrapped or swaddled like they were in the womb. In addition, you’ll prevent them from pushing off their blankets in the night so they stay warm.

7. Help your baby relax before bedtime

Just like adults, babies need a period of transition between activities and going to bed. When you take the baby to bed, turn off the television and turn the music and your cellphone down. Assure that the room also has dimmed lights and a comfortable temperature.

If you want to help your baby sleep through the night, you and your partner also need to be relaxed. Children can perceive tension and it makes it hard for them to rest when they feel it.

Enjoy your child’s bedtime and take advantage of those valuable moments to think of something other than bills or work. Use your baby’s bedtime to disconnect from your own tasks and worries for a while.