Newborns and sleep: 0-3 months

How much does a newborn sleep?

Newborns sleep for an average of 16–18 hours per day, but this can differ a great deal from one baby to the next. Some sleep almost constantly, while others sleep less – too little, you might reckon as a parent. How long they spend asleep at a time differs, too: some babies can snooze for hours, while others prefer power naps and won’t sleep for more than 20 minutes in a stretch.

Infants and night-time sleep

Brand-new babies can’t differentiate between day and night, and instead, sleep is governed by hunger and satiation. Early on, the baby will surely want to eat as often at night as during the day – because they need to, quite simply.

After a few months, nighttime hunger tends to decline and baby will gradually sleep for longer at night. But even at 3 months of age, waking up a few times per night to eat is completely normal. How smoothly nighttime feeding goes can vary, however. Some people are fortunate to have a baby who falls back asleep right away, or who will even eat in a semi-asleep state, but it’s just as common to have a bright and chipper baby after eating. If the latter is the case, you can still try putting the baby back in their crib or baby nest while you try to fall back asleep yourself. They may be happy enough just to be awake for a while, knowing that you are near. But if your baby isn’t buying it, you’ll have to roll with the punches: if your household has two parents, you can divide and conquer with one parent awake while the other sleeps. If you’re a solo parent, then just remember that this period will pass. If the situation is the reverse and your baby won’t wake up on their own, you usually have to wake them up to feed them at this age. Talk to your paediatrician about it, keeping your baby’s weight in mind.

Sleep and bedtime routines for a newborn

Newborns do not differentiate between night and day, but after a few months, you can help them start to sort it out. One thing you can try is to keep your home dark at night and light during the day. It might sound obvious, but we’re suggesting that you keep the lights off at night when you feed the baby or change their diaper, if you can. If you have a glow-in-the-dark pacifier, then you won’t have to turn on a light while fumbling around in the dark to find it. During the day, instead of closing the curtains, let the baby sleep in daylight – as long as you hadn’t planned to sleep beside them in the same room and need it to be dark to do so. In that case, we warmly recommend that you prioritise your own sleep. Soon, the baby will also be able to understand bedtime routines and at that point, you can try having a regular evening ritual, for example a bath and a lullaby, or a little evening massage. This might help the baby understand faster that it’s time to sleep and make it easier for them to settle down.

Newborns are often light sleepers

Early on, it’s common for babies to sleep very lightly, so lightly, in fact, that it can be difficult to tell whether they are asleep or awake. It’s also common for them to smile, fuss, and make little noises in their sleep – which often leads to parents trying with the best of intentions to soothe them, but managing to wake baby up instead. So a better choice here is to tough it out for a little while and see which way things go. Babies’ light and irregular sleep can make it feel like they are waking up constantly, but even if it seems as if your baby never sleeps, you can rest assured that infants are generally very skilled at getting the sleep their bodies need.

How often does a newborn need to sleep?

Even if babies do tend to get their needed daily dose of sleep, keep in mind that you shouldn’t let too much time pass between naps, because an overtired baby can be hard to feed and have a tough time going to sleep. A good rule of thumb is that at this age, babies tend to get tired after about 1 to 2 hours. The most common signs of tiredness are yawning and fussing – or crying if they are overtired. If it seems like your baby doesn’t want to sleep at all during the day, try carrying them close to your body (in a baby wrap or sling if you want both hands free), or take a walk with the pram; many babies sleep better in outdoor air and in a moving pushchair.

Should you sleep in the same room as the baby?

If you’re worried that your baby doesn’t have their own room, you can exhale: babies feel more secure when sleeping close to their parents. And secure babies typically sleep better. One handy trick is to have a bedside crib with an open side facing the parent’s bed. But if you would rather co-sleep with the baby in your bed, you need to make sure they have their own space, for example with a nest, and that there is no risk of baby ending up underneath heavy covers or pillows. Babies this young shouldn’t have any soft toys in their bed, which could end up covering their face. It’s also important to keep in mind that newborns should always sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

So babies usually sleep best in their parents’ room, but in fact you might actually sleep better yourself if you’re not constantly on high alert and listening for every little peep the baby makes. Try things out and see what works best right now. If your household has multiple parents and the luxury of several bedrooms, one suggestion is to simply split up, so that one of you can sleep undisturbed for a few hours and then switch. If you are dealing with colic, then separate rooms probably won’t be enough; you may need a pair of earplugs or headphones to get through this challenging time. It’s also easy to imagine that it would be impossible for someone who is breastfeeding to get to sleep in peace, but that doesn’t have to be the case at all: the baby doesn’t have to eat constantly, and it usually works well for the non-breastfeeding parent to take parts of the nightshift.. If you want to read more about babies’ and parents’ sleep, you can do so here.

Please note that all information above is based on Swedish recommendations.