A guide to your child's sleep development from six weeks to age five
Many would agree that one of the hardest parts of becoming a parent is battling sleep deprivation, often leading new parents to ask themselves “when will my baby sleep through the night?”.
However, the answer to that question isn’t a simple one. What new parents might not realize is that from six weeks on a child’s sleep is constantly evolving. There are many mini developmental milestones that happen before babies are able to sleep through the night. And once babies reach this big milestone, developmental changes keep occurring that factor into how long babies sleep.
Let's review some of these sleep milestones and ways you can help foster their development.
Six weeks:
At this point, babies begin to wake up to the world. They are a bit more alert and start to become more observant of their surroundings.
By this age, babies who are a healthy weight and have no medical conditions may have the ability to sleep five to six hours in a row at night.
One factor that could potentially interfere with a baby’s ability to sleep a longer stretch is snacking rather than taking full feeds. By six weeks babies can start to take larger feeds, and this is when we recommend switching from feeding on demand to a three hour feeding schedule.
Three to four months:
Babies start to produce melatonin, the natural “sleepy hormone” that is released in our brains in the evening when darkness occurs. One way to support your baby’s natural melatonin production is to use blackout shades in your baby’s room for naps and night, as darkness helps create tiredness!
Circadian rhythm/sleep-wake cycles, which are regulated by light and darkness, begin to develop around this time. Before now, your baby did not have an awareness of daytime vs. nighttime to help dictate when they should be sleeping. Along with this comes the likelihood of longer, more consolidated stretches of sleep at night.
To support the development of their circadian rhythm, expose your child to light during the day, and keep the sleep environment dark for all naps and night time sleep.
Babies at this age start to make sleep associations. This can be a good thing, as they will learn that the start of the bedtime routine means that it is time to sleep. However, this can also present a challenge if they come to rely on certain associations to go back asleep. For example if a baby relies on being fed to sleep they may require a feeding for each and every wake-up.
To work on developing a good sleep foundation, this is a good age to begin to move towards a twelve hour cycle. For example, if your baby goes down to bed at 7:30pm, you begin their day at 7:30am the following day.
By four months, babies generally begin to develop self-soothing skills and sleep training can begin.
To set you and your baby up for success during the sleep training/ teaching process you will want to plan for seven to fourteen days of consistent application in order to see real progress. Progress may be small in the beginning. Sleep training/ teaching outcomes depend on your child’s age, and how long your child has been experiencing sleep issues.
Keep in mind many babies at this age still need feedings one to two times per night. Because of this you may want to consider making one of those feedings a dream feed.
Five months:
By four and a half to five months it is possible to see night stretches as long as ten to twelve hours!
Circadian rhythm becomes much more established at this point, meaning babies clearly understand the difference between daytime and nighttime sleep.
You may want to continue providing baby one to two feeds at night at this stage, offering the first feeding, potentially a dream feed, around 9:00-11:00pm, and the second one around 4:00-5:00am if they truly need it.
Six months:
By this point, sleep should be organized into a more consistent pattern. Although wake-up times and nap lengths will vary, your baby’s schedule should look much more predictable than it did a few months ago!
By five and a half to six months, your little one will have transitioned down to three naps.
A good goal for babies who continue to wake through the night at this age is to work towards having only one night feed, usually around 3:00-5:00am.
Eight to nine months:
At eight to nine months, your baby will transition down to two naps, and you’ll notice your schedule gets much more predictable!
If your child is healthy and at a proper weight, chances are they will not need any more night feedings!
Twelve months:
For the first twelve months we encourage following age appropriate awake windows along with a baby’s sleepy cues in order to determine proper nap times. But by twelve months you can now start moving towards a by-the-clock schedule, where naptime and bedtime are at more predictable times every day, even if wake-up times are a little varied day-by-day. Although, you’ll still want to continue keeping awake windows in the back of your mind.
Fourteen to eighteen months:
Toddlers at this age will ideally transition down to one nap by eighteen months. Early risings may become a pattern if parents drop the second nap too soon so we encourage parents to keep the second nap at this age until it is clear a child no longer needs it.
At this age, it is common to see a sleep regression as it is generally the toughest nap transition. Parents may bring back the second nap temporarily if their child begins taking short naps and having sleep problems related due to being overtired.
Eighteen months:
At this age, toddlers will generally require a nap about five hours after they wake up for the day, and then need to be asleep for the night about five and a half hours after they wake from their nap.
Three and a half to five years old:
Around this time the last nap is dropped completely and children are on a no nap schedule with “quiet time” built into where their nap used to be.
Most children developmentally need the last nap until age three, but others continue to need it all the way up until the age of five. Often when children begin preschool is when we see the need for a nap again. We encourage this as long as it is not interfering with a child’s bedtime.
If you would like more detailed guidance about your child’s sleep development, or if you feel like your baby is struggling with sleep, please reach out. Our free 30-minute discovery calls can help point you in the right direction! If you prefer a course we also offer online sleep classes for newborns, 4-12 month olds, and toddlers, as well as an affordable ebook guide called Your Child’s Guide to Sleeping Through the Night.
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Five signs your child is ready to drop a nap