Infant Sleep Schedule

Are you wondering if you should create an infant sleep schedule for your little one? If that is question that is raging on inside your head, this article is full of some helpful information that could assist you in making the final decision.

Creating an infant sleep schedule is something that could be extremely healthy not only for your infant, but for the entire family. Often babies can become confused and get their sleep mixed up. Nearly every parent has dealt with it, babies that sleep during the day and are wide awake, ready to play at night, when everyone else wants to sleep. The confusion is easy to understand; after all they are babies who have no real concept of day or night.

Therefore, creating an infant sleep schedule could help to get baby, you, and all of the family on the right track. However, a sleep schedule goes a little further than just nighttime sleep; it should also extend to daytime naps. Your baby, depending on his or her age, will sleep most of the time. However, it is important that you quickly establish an infant sleep schedule in order to build habits. There are several things you could do to establish the sleep times you want to schedule for your infant.

First, look at your nursing or feeding schedule. In general, babies need to be fed every two to four hours, if you feed more frequently, but in smaller doses, this may encourage more awake time, which is essential to setting a schedule.

Second, attempt to stretch out your baby's awake time gradually. Playing with your baby or giving him baths are great ways to gradually and slowly extend the time he or she is awake. This will help both of you adjust well to the sleep schedule you are trying to implement.

Next, look at your baby’s sleeping habits during naptime. It is a proven fact that nap time sleep will have a big affect on the sleep they get during the night. You do not want naps to occur very late in the day or for very long if they must sleep late in the day (such as the case with newborns). If your child takes three naps a day, you want to attempt to set them on a schedule such as one nap in the middle of the morning, one early afternoon nap, and one early evening nap.

You then have to look at the number of hours needed for your baby when creating an infant sleep schedule. A typical four-month-old baby will need a maximum of three naps a day with four to six hours of sleep time. In other words, three naps a day two hours each. By setting the infant sleep schedule to right around the same times each day, this will become a habit for your infant. You will then find that nighttime sleep extends gradually and everyone in the family is getting more sleep, better sleep, and is a whole lot happier.

For a simple, easy to follow method that is proven to help infants sleep through the night, every night, take a look at The Baby Sleep Solution.