Creating a calming space for sleep will help your baby settle more quickly, sleep for longer stretches, have a more restorative sleep and help them to resettle themselves during sleep cycles. The idea is to make your baby feel comfortable and less stimulated in an environment conducive to sleep. Follow these tips to give your baby the best chance for a great night’s sleep.
Consider the darkness of the room:
- Darkness is essential for sleep because baby produces melatonin, a sleep hormone, only when it’s dark.
- Production of melatonin gets baby’s body ready for sleep by causing a drop in body temperature, increased drowsiness, and relaxed muscles, which are physical signals that baby need to sleep.
- Darkness is less stimulating and a dark room signal sleep time for baby
Check:
Is there any light streaming under the door or through the blinds? Is there any light being emitted from electrical appliances?
Think about NOISE
1. Noise from normal family living can over stimulate your baby.
2. It’s often difficult to control the sound in and around our homes, so consider ‘white noise’ as something that can be controlled.
3. White noise can help to mask stimulating noise that inhibits your baby’s sleep.
4. You can create white noise many ways: use a commercial white noise device, a white noise app, or even a vacuum cleaner.
5. The trick is, the noise must be louder than the noise your baby is making when he cries (usually a very high volume!)
6. Placement of the noise is important: never direct noise straight towards baby’s ear.
7. A shushing noise from your voice or device such as the ‘Baby Shusher’ can be soothing and be used in conjunction with white noise body ready for sleep by causing a drop in body temperature, increased drowsiness, and relaxed muscles, which are physical signals that baby need to sleep.
TEMPERATURE in your baby’s room is important…
Optimal temperature will help your baby fall asleep and stay asleep longer. As we fall asleep, our bodies naturally cool off, so helping your baby’s body get to a lower temperature more quickly can encourage restorative sleep. If the room is too hot or cold, your baby’s body will use a lot of energy trying to regulate internal temperature, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. Consider these things to help encourage peaceful sleep:
- Give baby a warm bath as part of her bedtime routine, which allows baby’s body temperature to cool down, as it does when falling asleep.
- Aim for an optimal room temperature of 19-21° for sleep.
- If it’s hard to control temperature in your baby’s room, dressing your baby to suit the room temperature is your next best option.
