Infants under 6 months old can usually sleep anywhere from three to eight hours at night, depending on age and stage. And babies between 4 and 6 months old are developmentally able to sleep through the night without a feeding, but whether they do is another story.
Newborns who sleep for longer stretches should be awakened to feed. Wake your baby every 3–4 hours to eat until he or she shows good weight gain, which usually happens within the first couple of weeks. After that, it's OK to let your baby sleep for longer periods of time at night.
First Weeks and Months
On average, most exclusively breastfed babies will feed about every 2 to 4 hours. Some babies may feed as often as every hour at times, often called cluster feeding. Or may have a longer sleep interval of 4 to 5 hours. How often your baby feeds might change depending on the time of day.
A four-week-old can be expected to start to sleep for one longer stretch at night. In other words, if you give your four-week-old the last feed of the day at 7pm, he should stretch to four or even fi ve hours before needing the next feed. Some settled babies do sleep longer than this, and if your baby does, be happy.
Newborns should not go more than about 4–5 hours without feeding. Signs that babies are hungry include: moving their heads from side to side. opening their mouths.
Infants up to 3 months old should get 14–17 hours of sleep over a 24-hour period, says the National Sleep Foundation. Many will have settled into a daily sleep routine of 2-3 naps during the day, followed by a longer "sleeping through the night" stretch after a late-night feeding.
It's best to continue to feed your baby whenever they seem hungry. Your 1-month-old baby's feeding schedule may likely look like this: about eight times in a 24-hour period for babies who are breastfeeding or about every three to four hours for babies on formula.
Chronic sleepiness, though, can sometimes be a cause for concern. If your newborn is regularly sleeping for more than 17 hours a day and it's interfering with her ability to eat at least eight times per day, you should let your pediatrician know. Frequently missing meals could hurt her weight gain and growth.
Newborn babies need to feed every few hours until the age of 3 months. After this, it is normal for infants to feed once or twice during the night. Most infants can sleep for 6–8 hours without a feed by the age of 6 months. Once they are 9 months old, most infants can sleep for 11–12 hours without a feed.
Newborns generally sleep for two to three hours before waking to eat, day and night. As they get older, babies are usually able to sleep for increasingly longer stretches of time at night without waking to eat. Between the age of 2 to 3 months old, healthy babies are often able to sleep for six hours without feeding.
The amount of sleep an infant gets at any one stretch of time is mostly ruled by hunger. Newborns will wake up and want to be fed about every three to four hours at first. Do not let your newborn sleep longer than five hours at a time in the first five to six weeks.
At this age, it's common for newborns to be in their nighttime sleep space for 9 - 12 hours at night, waking multiple times for feedings and comfort.
As a guide, many babies sleep 14-20 hours a day in the first weeks. By 3 months many are settled into a pattern of longer sleep times – perhaps 4 to 5 hours at night. When a baby sleeps about 5 hours straight, this is considered 'sleeping through the night'.
From a developmental perspective, babies are able to sleep through the night — defined as a six- to eight-hour stretch — without eating when they're between 4 and 6 months old. In this age range, most babies reach the 12- to 13-pound mark, the weight where they no longer metabolically need nighttime feedings.
Generally, newborns sleep a total of about 8 to 9 hours in the daytime and a total of about 8 hours at night. But because they have a small stomach, they must wake every few hours to eat. Most babies don't start sleeping through the night (6 to 8 hours) until at least 3 months of age.
Your 4-week-old baby's development
Newborns up to 3 or 4 months old need 14 to 17 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, usually waking every two to four hours to eat. Breastfed babies should eat as much as they want at this age, but a general rule of thumb is roughly 16 to 24 ounces of breast milk or formula in 24 hours.
Here's how often you can expect your baby to eat at night during the 0 - 2 month age timeframe: Breastfed Babies - 3 to 5 feedings per night. Formula-fed Babies - 2 to 4 feedings per night.
SIDS is most common at 2-4 months of age when the cardiorespiratory system of all infants is in rapid transition and therefore unstable. So, all infants in this age range are at risk for dysfunction of neurological control of breathing.
At 4 months, they can go eight hours at night without feeding; by 5 months, they can sleep for 10 or 11 hours straight. Both 4-month-olds and 5-month-olds will sleep four to five hours during the day, spread out over three naps.
Here's our guidelines for appropriate bedtimes, based on age (keep in mind, the lower range aligns with the younger age): Newborns (0 - 3.5 months) - 7:30-9:30pm (later because newborn sleep cycles aren't yet in place and circadian rhythm isn't driving sleep) 3.5 - 6 months old - 7-8:30 pm. 6 - 12 months old - 6-8pm.
Newborn – “Newborns do not sleep through the night,” says Dr. Lewis. “They will wake up to feed every two to four hours.” 1-month-old – “At 1 month, your baby may sleep longer through the night, such as 4-6 hours, but typically wake up to feed every three to four hours at night,” says Lewis.
“Babies can still breastfeed on demand—usually they will want to breastfeed every 2-4 hours at this stage,” she notes. “But sometimes they will want to feed every hour and other times will not eat for 5 hours.” All of this is common, she says.
A baby occasionally sleeping for longer than usual is not a cause for concern unless there are other symptoms. In general, it is uncommon for a newborn to consistently sleep through feedings or to sleep for longer than 19 hours per day unless they are ill or are having feeding difficulties.