When is the best time for a baby to sleep?

When is the best time for a baby to sleep? It all depends on his age. Very young chil­dren sleep a lot, and they need to be put to bed ear­li­er. Old­er chil­dren may skip naps and go to bed a lit­tle lat­er.

daytime sleep

It is nec­es­sary to focus on the child, his needs and well-being. One child is more awake and sleeps less. The oth­er sleeps quite a lot. Some­one sleeps from 13 to 15 hours, and some­one from 14 to 16. Much in the dai­ly rou­tine can be indi­vid­ual.

If the child feels well, not lethar­gic and not overex­cit­ed, then you can put him to bed a lit­tle lat­er, but with­in half an hour. Let him play more, then he will sleep bet­ter and fall asleep faster. If the usu­al time for sleep has not yet come, and the child is already tired, plays com­plete­ly inac­tive or is naughty, it is worth putting him to bed ear­li­er.

Babies under one year sleep a lot through­out the day. The old­er the child gets, the less he sleeps. First twice a day, then once. There are chil­dren who do not want to sleep dur­ing the day at all. If the child is quite active and at the same time does not want to sleep at all, you can just lie down and lis­ten to a book that par­ents are read­ing. It is advis­able to get some rest. If the child dur­ing the day plays lit­tle active games and walks, it is worth adding phys­i­cal activ­i­ty. Play foot­ball with him, go for a walk in the park. When the child plays well and takes a walk, he will get tired and pos­si­bly fall asleep dur­ing the day. But don’t force your­self to sleep.

Night sleep

As for night sleep, young chil­dren can be put to bed at 20–21 hours. Old­er chil­dren can be put to bed at 20.30–21.30. This is the pre­ferred bed­time. But even here there are options. It may well be that the child falls asleep at 22.00 and wakes up at 7 in the morn­ing, while feel­ing great. And anoth­er child can go to bed at 20.00 and at the same time wake up only at 9 o’clock in the morn­ing. The main thing is that the child is active and feels good.

If the child does not fall asleep well, it is worth tak­ing cer­tain mea­sures.

• First, increase activ­i­ty dur­ing the day. Walk twice a day, play out­door games. If the child does not like such activ­i­ties too much, find some­thing that will cap­ti­vate him, engage with him.
• Sec­ond­ly, in the evening, 1.5–2 hours before bed­time, switch to calm games. Read books, draw, make puz­zles, play board games.
• Third­ly, before going to bed, you can take a walk in the fresh air. This helps a lot.
• Fourth, you need to pre­pare the room for sleep. Ven­ti­late, turn off the light, humid­i­fy the air if the room is dry.
• Fifth, it is nec­es­sary to mon­i­tor the food that the child con­sumes before bed­time. Sweets and buns should not be giv­en. You should not drink a lot of liq­uid. It is best to choose dairy prod­ucts with­out sug­ar, cere­al or veg­eta­bles.
• Sixth, if the child is overex­cit­ed, you can do a light relax­ing mas­sage or take a bath.

The best time to sleep is when your child is most com­fort­able falling asleep. That is, you should always focus on the child. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to observe the regime of the day, which is devel­oped over time. Cer­tain lim­its must be adhered to. You should not go to bed at 20.00 one day, and at 23.00 the next. It won’t do any good. Of course, cer­tain options may be, but with­in rea­son.