As a sleep deprived parent stuck in the zombie days with your baby, it's hard to sift through all of the different posts about creating the perfect sleep space for your baby.
So as a Baby-Led Sleep and Well-Being Specialist, I decided to put together my best tips for creating the perfect sleep environment that's unique to your baby's normal biological needs, specific personality, and distinct preferences.
Use these tips to set up your baby's sleep space so your entire family can start sleeping better before you know it.
Four Key Tips for Designing the Perfect Sleep Space for Your Baby:
- Darken the room.
- Adjust the temperature.
- Add a little white noise.
- Find the best sleep location.
- Quick Tip: If you're in a hurry, scroll through to find the quick sleep tips you can try out right now. Then save this post and come back later to read the rest of the article and create the most personalized sleep space for your baby.
4 Important Ways to Create Your Baby's Perfect Sleep Environment:
1. Decide how dark your baby's room should be.
- Quick Tip: Try making your baby's room pitch black overnight (so dark you can't see your hand when you hold it out in front of your face).
For both babies and adults, our internal biological clock is set by light and darkness.
When we turn out the lights, we encourage the production of melatonin, our sleep hormone. On the other hand, when we're exposed to artificial light, this stops or slows down melatonin production for up to 90 minutes.
2. Adjust the temperature to help your baby sleep better.
- Quick Tip: Make sure to dress your baby for the temperature they are sleeping in.
Have you ever had a hard time falling asleep because your room was too hot? Or you just couldn't warm up enough to relax and fall asleep?
That's because the temperature of our sleep space can make it easier or harder to fall asleep and stay asleep and this is true for our babies too.
Before we jump into information about the “ideal” sleep temperature, remember that there are babies all around the world without air conditioning or heaters. And they're able to sleep just fine.
Setting the ideal temperature isn't the end-all-be-all of fixing your baby's sleep problems, but if you can adjust the temperature, it's easier to set the conditions to lull your baby to a restful sleep.
3. Determine the best noise level for your baby to sleep.
- Quick Tip: Experiment with white noise and tune in to whether your baby finds this soothing or distracting.
It's true that some sudden noises can wake your baby and you've probably heard that using white noise will help your baby to sleep better.
Although this is certainly true for some babies, how helpful white noise is really depends on your baby's personality.
4. Find the best location to support your baby's sleep.
- Pro-Tip: Build in ways to help your baby feel connected to you while they sleep while creating a calming, peaceful sleep space.
The final step of creating the perfect sleep environment that's unique to your baby is to find the best place to support your baby's sleep.
Typically your baby will sleep in one of four places:
- Cuddling or babywearing with a caregiver
- Crib or bassinet in your room
- Crib or bassinet in their room
- Bedsharing in family bed or floor bed
Final Thoughts:
When creating the perfect sleep space, try to factor in your baby's unique preferences and personality to create the environment that helps your baby sleep best.
Darken the room to increase melatonin production and signal that it's time to sleep.
Pay attention to signals if your baby is too warm or too cold and dress your baby according to the temperature they are in.
Consider using a noise machine to see if that helps your baby tune out other, more distracting noises.
And create a sleep space that is calming, not too stimulating, and helps your baby feel connected to you.
Work Cited
Danielle LaFee. “4 Easy Tips to Create the Perfect Sleep Space for Your Baby”
https://pieceofcakeparenting.com/create-perfect-sleep-space-for-baby/