How to Adjust Baby Sleep Schedule?

Fixing your baby’s sleep schedule can feel like a daunting task due to your own sleep deprivation and trying to figure out what works well for your baby. Generally, there are massive fluctuations in a baby’s sleep schedule. One day, they sleep peacefully, but the next day, they are wide awake at 2 AM. Thus, it can be exhausting for parents or caregivers.

Consulting a newborn doctor in Siliguri or a location near you can help you learn how to adjust your baby’s sleep schedule through personalised guidance. In this blog, you will gain some of the most common tips on how to adjust a baby's sleep schedule so that you can try these simple procedures at home before visiting a trusted paediatrician.

Know How To Adjust Your Baby’s Sleep Schedule

Here are some of the common and effective ways to adjust or fix your baby’s sleep schedule:

• Establish a consistent bedtime routine: This is based on following a fixed pattern of evening actions that sets the tone for sleep time. However, the routine needs to be simple and followed consistently every night so that your baby becomes mentally prepared for sleep. Some common practices of establishing a consistent bedtime routine are a warm bath, a gentle massage, or putting on a nightdress. In addition, you can use lavender-scented products so that your baby can experience a soothing feeling before sleep.
• Develop circadian rhythm: Babies are not able to differentiate between day and night, which is one of the major reasons behind an improper sleep schedule. You can fix this issue by keeping the house bright and engaged during the day so that a playful environment gets created. On the other hand, you can keep the light dim during the night, along with maintaining a quiet environment. These practices will help in making the baby understand that daylight is for play and darkness is for long rest. In addition, do not allow screentime exposure while feeding during the night.
• Obtain information and monitor age-appropriate wake windows: The concept of wake windows is the amount of time a baby can comfortably stay awake between naps. For 0-2 months, the wake windows are generally 1-2 hours. This wake window tends to increase as they grow. Thus, by having proper knowledge of the wake windows, you can effectively manage your baby’s naptime. Overall, the key is to ensure that the baby becomes perfectly tired for sleep, but they must not become extremely exhausted because it might make them anxious.
• Create an ideal sleep environment: There is a direct relation between a good sleep environment and deeper sleep cycles. It is highly recommended to use blackout curtains so that daylight does not hamper the sleep quality. In addition, the temperature of the room should be around 20-23 ℃ and quiet. All these practices are essential to ensure that your baby sleeps for a longer duration, which is crucial to adjust the sleep schedule.
• Use the biological sleep times: As babies grow, they tend to settle into biological sleep times that are driven by hormonal surges. It has been observed that the hormonal surges generally occur during mid-morning, afternoon, and evening. The key in this regard is to align these natural hormonal surges with naps instead of focusing on wake windows. Overall, this practice can help your baby achieve better quality and longer sleep. 
• Teach independent sleeping skills: This is based on placing your baby gently in the crib when he/she starts feeling drowsy. The benefit of this practice is that your baby can learn self-soothing skills, which in turn develop understanding related to falling asleep independently. In addition, this practice helps in ensuring that your baby learn to resettle by himself or herself when he or she wakes up in the middle of the night. Therefore, you can get relief from the stress related to soothing your baby to sleep again when he or she wakes up in the middle of the night.
• Effectively manage changes in nap patterns: It is a well-known fact that babies undergo nap pattern changes in the first two years. You might encounter challenges during such a transition in terms of your baby resisting the final nap of the day or waking up in the middle of the night. During such scenarios, it becomes crucial to readjust the sleep schedule. One of the best practices in this regard is to promote an earlier bedtime, which can compensate for the missed nap.
• Implement the changes gradually: When you are travelling with your baby or trying to fix a permanent bedtime, it becomes important to avoid making sudden and large changes. One of the best ways to ensure that your baby adjusts to the changes is by changing the entire routine, which includes meal timing and nap timing. However, the timings need to be changed by 15 minutes after every few days till the desired time is achieved. Therefore, such gradual and slow changes support the sensitive internal clock of the baby.
• Prioritise safe sleep practices: One of the critical aspects related to adjusting your baby’s sleep schedule is to ensure safety. For example, while placing your baby in the crib when he or she is drowsy, you need to ensure that there are no toys or extra blankets in the crib. Therefore, the key is to ensure that the sleep space and environment are safe and consistent.

Final Thoughts

You need to understand that adjusting your baby’s sleep schedule is based on a series of small wins and achievements rather than large-scale changes. Thus, you need to maintain consistency and patience so that a soothing sleep routine can be developed for your baby.

However, if you observe that your baby is not adjusting well to the gradual changes, consulting a top paediatrician, such as Dr Brahma Dev Singh, is highly recommended. This is because such child specialist doctors can offer personalised tips and guidance that suit the individual needs of your baby.

Book an appointment with the best newborn doctor in Siliguri or a location of your convenience to receive personalised care for your baby.