Is your baby catnapping
and having trouble taking long stretches of sleep?
This is really common
and happens to most babies at some point.
There are a few factors that we take into account
when catnapping begins to occur,
and I'm gonna run you through some of those today.
You may know about awake times.
Your baby may even be self-settling already,
but why are they still catnapping?
Today, I'm going to be answering your question,
how do I set up a good sleep environment for my baby?
Hi, I'm Ebonie,
one of the sleep experts at Little Ones
and mother to two beautiful children.
We're certified sleep consultants
and have helped over 200,000 families
overcome sleep challenges, just like yours.
We also offer a comprehensive sleep program
to help you and your family
with some wonderful sleep for years to come.
You'll find the link to our website
just below in the description here.
Sleep environment.
It seems so simple,
but it really can lay the foundations for great sleep.
There's a few key points that we would look at
to help set up a really positive environment.
First, we start with a dark room.
Next, we look at white noise.
Then we would look at temperature, heating, cooling,
just finding that right spot for our little one,
and of course, sleeping bag and swaddle.
Let's start with a dark room.
Making your baby's room as dark as possible
is really gonna set the tone for sleep in a couple of ways.
When we enter a dark room as adults,
it helps us to switch off.
Babies are the same, it's no different.
So if we can make that room as dark as possible,
it's really gonna get things started on the right foot.
How dark is dark?
Essentially, as dark as possible.
We don't wanna be putting the pressure on
to completely black out a room.
If that's possible, fantastic,
black it out as much as you can.
We wanna remove any natural light creeping into the room.
So, putting some curtains up in front of the window.
I've used a towel, I've used blackout blinds, you name it,
as dark as you can possibly get it.
Babies find dark rooms safe and soothing.
So there really is no need to run a nightlight for a baby
under 18 months.
We would look at a nightlight.
At that point, if your little one
was showing signs that they might need it,
maybe they're becoming a little bit afraid overnight
and a nightlight's something that might help.
But for really young babies, no nightlight at all.
We wanna remove any distractions that we can.
Okay, so the next point is white noise.
This is a completely personal choice.
We really encourage white noise for a couple of reasons.
It helps to drown out external noise.
So I live in a house where we have a dog, we have a toddler.
It really helps your younger baby
to block out external noises that are happening.
There might be birds outside, there might be dogs barking,
there might be cars starting in the morning.
White noise is really great just to drown that out
so your little one can focus on sleeping.
The next idea behind white noise is,
it's really wonderful at replicating the sounds in the womb,
particularly for a newborn, that's really, really soothing.
They've just been welcomed to the outside world.
If we can replicate that sound
when they're going down for a sleep,
naturally, that's gonna provide them with that comfort
that they need to go off to sleep and stay asleep.
So white noise really helps our little ones
link those sleep cycles.
They hear at the beginning of their nap or bedtime.
Once they wake between those sleep cycles
in their dark room,
they hear that same sound and it helps them
move into or transition into that next sleep cycle.
We recommend running white noise as loud as a shower,
tends to be at about 60 decibels.
There are lots of white noise machines on the market.
You will find one that suits you and your family.
Another option is to stream white noise.
Feel free to head over to our website
where you will find our sleepy sounds
and all the platforms that you can stream that through.
Checking your bub's room temperature is set up nicely
is really gonna help with sleep.
So, your little one's gonna have trouble falling asleep
if they're too hot, same if they're too cold.
Being cold will also often contribute to
our little ones not being able to resettle themselves
or link their cycles, particularly overnight.
It's a big contributor to early rising,
that sort of four or 5:00 a.m. mark in the morning.
Tends to have a real drop in temperature,
and if they are just a little bit chilly,
they tend to wake and really have trouble resettling.
So, temperature can really help with that
because four and 5:00 a.m. is far too early to be waking up,
in my opinion.
So things to look at are the type of swaddle that you have.
There are ones on the market that provide a TOG rating.
So, that would give you a guide on
what your little one should wear underneath
their sleeping bag or swaddle,
depending on the temperature
that your room generally sits around.
So they're fantastic, highly recommend.
I just wanted to touch on swaddles and sleeping bags,
even though they're not, I guess,
part of a room environment as such,
they do play quite a bit of a role in that sleep environment
and keeping our little ones asleep
or helping them to settle off to sleep
or link those sleep cycles.
So, for small babies, little babies under five or six months
or before they're rolling,
we really wanna have a great swaddle
to keep them feeling snug and secure,
and to really keep that startle reflex at bay
that tends to startle them awake between sleep cycles
or even before a sleep cycle's finished.
In young babies, swaddling,
once they have moved away from a swaddle,
they're rolling or their startle reflex
has really calmed down and we move to a sleeping bag.
Again, even though it's not part of
the sleep environment as such,
it's a really positive sleep association
for our little ones.
The more and more we do it, the more they begin to associate
that sleeping bag with sleep.
You begin your process of getting your little one ready,
winding down, it's nap time, you pop that sleeping bag on
and your little one knows, right, it's time for sleep now,
we're starting that process, I know what's coming.
It's familiar.
They're helpful all the way through to toddlerhood.
My son wore a sleeping bag
right up until he moved into his bed,
and he was over three and a half when that happened.
So they're a wonderful sleep association.
Yes, they keep them warm, which is really important,
but they've got other benefits as well.
So lastly, I wanted to touch a little bit on safe sleep.
When it comes to setting up our baby's room or cot,
we want nothing in the cot,
we wanna have as minimal things in there as possible.
So removing anything that might become loose.
So, we avoid blankets, we avoid pillows,
right up until they really need those.
So, obviously in really little ones,
we don't need pillows, we don't need blankets,
we don't need comforters as such.
Pillows and blankets,
we keep those until they're much older.
If we're using a sleeping bag,
we tend to not need a blanket.
They often will fall down anyway,
and little ones, of course, newborns,
but little ones don't have the skill
to be able to pull that blanket back up.
So, a sleeping bag is recommended all the way through,
nice and safe, nobody can get tangled up in it.
Pillow, same idea.
We tend to keep those until little ones are in bed.
Not just because they don't typically need a pillow
to sleep on,
but, when they're getting to sort of that 18 month,
two-year age, they're exploring a little bit more.
So, we find they tend to move around their cot a bit more.
They will stand up in their cot.
If there's a pillow in there
and they don't really need it for sleeping,
it can be used as a climbing tool.
So, just make note of that.
It's okay to use a pillow when it's safe to do so,
but some little ones will use it
for climbing out of their cot.
So just recapping a little bit on
what I have touched on today.
How to set up your sleep environment for your little one.
The four main points that we looked at,
nice dark room, as dark as you can get it,
white noise,
really soothing and comforting for your little ones.
Is that room temperature going okay,
and are they swaddled and in a nice, warm, sleeping bag?
I hope that some of those points have been helpful to you
and they help your little ones sleep a little bit longer.
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