- A common piece of advice you might have heard
is that you should make sure your newborn sleeps
in a bright room during the day
so they don't get confused between day and night.
But this isn't actually correct.
And doing this can actually ruin your little one sleep.
Babies have no concept of day or night
and they don't rely on the circadian rhythm
to regulate their sleep.
This is because at birth, your baby's brain only produces
tiny amounts of the hormone melatonin
and this hormone promotes drowsiness and encourages sleep.
Instead at this age your baby simply falls asleep
whenever they're tired and wake whenever they're hungry
or uncomfortable.
It isn't until around four to six months of age
that your baby circadian rhythm is mature enough
so that they're actually producing enough melatonin
for night and day to actually have an influence
over their sleep patterns,
which is why it isn't until around four to six months
of age that babies start to develop
a more predictable sleep routine.
Babies, including newborns, actually find the dark
extremely comforting.
Sleeping in a dark room for daytime naps
will help your baby settle
and fall asleep quicker and stay asleep for longer.
Particularly if your baby is over two months of age.
If your baby's over two months of age,
the darkness will tell your baby's body
that it's time to produce melatonin
and this will make your baby drowsy and sleepy,
making it easier for them to fall asleep.
Though it isn't enough melatonin
for them to actually establish that day/night pattern yet,
which is why you don't need to be worried
about them getting confused between the day and the night.
In addition to promoting sleep,
the darkness will also help your little one stay asleep
when they wake between sleep cycles
which they start to do at
around three to five months of age.
So daytime sleep cycles are only about 30 to 45 minutes
and your baby will actually wake briefly
in between each sleep cycle,
and the darkness helps to neutralize their surroundings
and make it less interesting.
So during these small wake periods, it's much more likely
that your baby will go back to sleep
if they're in a dark room than if they're in a bright one.
Something else parents are often concerned about
is their baby being scared of the dark.
And a common response to this is to use a nightlight
to brighten the room, which you can probably guess
at this point actually has a negative effect
on their baby's sleep.
What's important to know is that babies
are not yet developmentally capable
of having a fear of the dark or having nightmares.
And this is simply because children
under the age of two years of age
do not have the imagination to think
that a shadowy monster could be lurking under their closet
or under their bed.
Also, they have just spent the best part of nine months
in almost complete darkness.
If anything, darkness should be a comfort to them.
And this is definitely true because with a young baby
if they're extremely distressed,
as soon as you take them into a dark quiet room,
you'll notice that they start to calm down.
For these reasons babies do not need night lights.
Any light will actually be stimulating and can prevent them
from falling asleep or staying asleep.
So you should just avoid using them altogether.
Another belief I hear all the time
is that babies need to sleep in noisy,
unpredictable locations
in order for them to get used to sleeping
in less than perfect environments.
The idea is to make them more adaptable,
but in reality it doesn't work like that.
Everyone, including babies, sleep best
in a quiet environment.
Babies, particularly newborns,
spend a lot of time in light sleep
which basically means that they can be woken up
from their sleep really easily.
And in addition to that,
up until three to four months of age,
babies have a startle reflex
which is triggered when there is a loud sudden noise
and activating their startle reflex will also wake them up.
And on top of that,
sometime between three to five months of age,
your baby's sleep will mature
and they will start to wake up between sleep cycles.
So as you can see, it's very easy to wake a young baby up.
Now I know you might be thinking,
oh, but my baby sleeps in a noisy environment all the time
or you've seen other babies doing this.
But what you're actually seeing
is behavior known as habituating.
And this is where the baby looks like they're asleep
but they are actually awake or in a light sleep state
at best and they're trying really, really hard to sleep
but they aren't getting that restful sleep that they need
which comes when they go through full sleep cycles.
And if they aren't getting that quality sleep,
they're likely to be overtired and fussy
when they do wake up from that sleep.
Now I'm not saying your baby
needs to be in a completely silent room.
I understand a lot of us live in a noisy household
which is just part of life
and we can't expect a perfect environment every time.
So the easiest solution in that case
is actually to use a white noise machine.
And this is just a machine that generates static
or a consistent gentle sound
which helps to mask other sounds,
especially sudden loud noises.
And this will help your baby stay asleep
and reduce that potential startle reflex
because those sudden loud noises
aren't going to be triggering them.
A white noise machine is definitely something
that I do recommend using in a baby's bedroom
to promote a healthy sleep environment.
But if you want to create the safest sleeping environment
possible for your little one,
there are a few common items
that you should never be placing in their crib.
So make sure you watch this video next
to learn what they are and why they aren't recommended
despite what some of the marketing might say.
Thanks for watching. And I'll see you next week
where I'll share more parenting tips and trick.