A young child's circadian rhythm naturally wakes them as early as 6:00 to 7:30 a.m. Too late a bedtime means they'll still awaken, but with less sleep. In fact, it is scientifically proven that babies in a consistent routine (including a reasonable bedtime) will fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Most babies sleep longer with an earlier bedtime. Many parents are afraid to put their baby to bed so early, thinking that they will then face a 5 a.m. wake up call. But keeping your little one up too late backfires, and more often, a late night is the one followed by that early morning awakening.
Bedtime for the newborn is typically late (11 pm or so) and naturally moves earlier throughout baby's first year. An ideal bedtime for a 3 month old baby is between 7:30 – 9:30 pm.
Bedtime in newborns is naturally late, usually around 9:00pm or later, but it is important to start moving the bedtime earlier around 6/8 weeks. By 2 months, baby's last nap should be ending by 6:30pm. Bedtime should be around 6:30-8:30pm and should occur about 1-2 hours after the last nap ends.
Babies, unlike adults, tend to fall asleep in the first few hours of the night (between 5pm and 7pm). If you keep your child up later than 8pm, you could be interfering and even disrupting their natural tendency to fall and stay asleep.
Most babies can sleep from 7pm to 7am consistently between the ages of 6 to 9 months, as they learn to connect sleep cycles and develop self-soothing techniques.
Many four month olds do best with that 7 to 8 pm bedtime. However, some babies do hold on to a later bedtime just a bit longer. So please know, if your baby is thriving with a bedtime between 8 and 10 pm, there's no need to change anything yet.
It is usually best not to start an evening nap after 5-6 pm and – instead, move bedtime up a little during the transition phase. Most babies are sleeping about 3 hours total during the day at this point. By 18 months children drop down to one nap. This nap often occurs mid-day and may vary in length from 1-3 hours.
Don't Allow Stimulating Activities Before Bed
Especially if your child has trouble falling asleep, it's usually best to stop stimulating activities, such as roughhousing, running around, playing video games, or watching TV, 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime.
As a general rule of thumb, night time nappy changes are necessary if your baby has soiled the nappy, or it is completely full. A little bit of urine in the nappy is fine, and you can usually wait a bit longer before changing them again.
Bedtime for a 3 month old
Plan for bedtime to be 12 - 14 hours after waking for the day but no earlier than 6:00 PM. That means an optimal bedtime for a baby waking around 6:00 AM will be between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
Doing so has the potential to cause several problems: If your child is used to being fed early he may wake up to eat even if he needs more sleep. If he is still napping, his early nap may cause problems if it isn't moved later too since it may be acting as continuation of night sleep with a short wake period before it.
Babies optimal sleep is between 6pm-8pm bedtime until 6am-8am waking in the morning.
Babies take their cues from you and what you do together; if you do the same thing each nap and bedtime, they'll start to realize it's time for sleep. Routines are how babies know day from night, and when to transition from one to the other.
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.
Once the feeding is complete, you keep your baby awake until it's time to sleep. That could be anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on your kiddo's age. Then when it's time to put them down for a nap, they fall asleep in any way that does NOT involve feeding.
Under tiredness
Your baby's naps have a lot to do with their readiness to settle in the evening. If your baby has had a lot (ie, too much) day sleep, they will genuinely need some more awake time before heading to bed for the night. This can mean they're reluctant to settle easily at bedtime.
Chronically sleep-deprived babies will typically have 'catch-up' sleep from time to time. An overtired baby might crash at night, sleeping usually long periods without demanding feedings owing to physical exhaustion that occurs as a result of not receiving enough sleep during the day.
Your child's night-time sleeping habits may be disrupted by their daytime naps. For example, if they don't sleep during the afternoon, you may find they are too tired to eat their evening meal. As they are so tired, you put them to bed early.
Babies over 9 months of age should not sleep after 3.30 pm in the day. Older children should avoid naps after 3.30 pm as it can lead to a later bedtime.
Move her bedtime later by about 10 minutes each night until she's hitting the hay about an hour later (or you reached your goal of her sleeping later). This works best if you move her eating schedule later as well, so hunger doesn't wake her up too soon. You might also have to work on your baby's nap schedule.
What is the 2,3,4 schedule? The 2,3,4 schedule for napping is pretty simple - two hours after your baby wakes for the day, you put them down for their first nap. Three hours after that nap ends, you put them down for their second nap. Then 4 hours after that 2nd nap ends, you'd put them down for bed.
The 2-3-4 nap schedule is for babies who are on two naps a day. The first wake window would be 2 hours, the second would be 3 hours and the last wake window for bed is 4 hours.
The 5 3 3 rule is a sleep training method that involves setting specific intervals for sleep. The method involves having the child sleep for 5 hours, followed by 3 hours of awake time, and then 3 hours of sleep again.