One of the many surprises for me when I became a mum was trying to grasp with the concept that I needed to teach my baby how to sleep. For the life of me I couldn’t understand what that meant, let alone how I was somehow supposed to teach this little human, who couldn’t communicate with me, how to just go to sleep. Thankfully, just like most things, there is a science to getting a baby to sleep, which might just make your life a little bit easier.

Firstly, if you have been through those sleep depriving weeks, months, or years as a mum, you will know just how hard it is. You are so desperate to lay your head on the pillow, but at the same time you worry as soon as you fall asleep, they will wake crying for you. During those early weeks, you are feeding around the clock, and often feel like you’re on auto-pilot. It’s hard. It’s exhausting. It’s motherhood.

There is a lot of science on infant sleep. And when I say a lot, I feel there is actually too much. There’s advice for swaddling and not swaddling, sleeping bags, white noise, lullabies, dark room, red light, diffusers, and an array of combinations to try. So with all these options, where do mamas even start? Talking to mums out there, it seems there are two groups. They are either all for sleep training and happy to choose one of the many methods, or they are very much against the concept no matter how gentle a program claims to be and prefer to rock, cuddle or feed their baby to sleep.

A simple google search on infant sleep will bring up and endless list of different sleep schools, all with their own philosophies on the right method to get your baby to sleep. Whilst it feels like there are way too many options to choose from, there are some common principles that sleep schools seem to align to if they take a science, evidence-based approach to their training.

So what are the key points to note?

1. White noise – a study by Sezici and Yigit (2017) found white noise both significantly decreased crying and increased sleeping duration in “colicky” babies. The 1990 study by Spencer, Moran, Lee and Talbert is probably one of the most talked about studies that found 80% of newborns fell asleep within 5 minutes of introducing white noise, compared with only 25% in the control group. But following on from this, the popular follow-up question is how safe is it for a baby’s hearing? There doesn’t seem to be conclusive evidence one way or the other on this although a quick google search does suggest the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the sound should be no louder than 50db, which actually is not as loud as you may expect!
2. Swaddling – The general principle behind swaddling steams from the idea that it decreases the chance of your baby spontaneously awaking and also increase the duration of your baby’s sleep. A study by Gerard, Harris and Thach (2002) found swaddling does inhibit full arousals and suggests it may help infants return to sleep without the need for assistance. It does note a safe form of swaddling with infants lying on their back is necessary to reduce the risks of SIDS, which aligns with the recommendations outlined by Red Nose Australia. Once bub can roll or moves to sleep on tummy, you should cease swaddling immediately, and consult Red Nose Australia for alternatives.
3. Dark room – This worked perfectly for us and based on the science it sounds like there is a good reason why. A review by Singh and Jadhav (2014) explains melatonin production is decreased by light and increased by darkness. So that just leaves the question, what is melatonin?
4. Melatonin – One quick google of newborn sleep and you will be bombarded with an array of suggestions to promote melatonin, which is otherwise known as the “sleepy hormone”. A study by Sadeh (1997) found melatonin in infants plays an important role in sleep and that delayed melatonin secretion was related to poorer sleep quality. This study also concluded light exposure may affect sleep.
5. Red light – there are claims across the internet that red light can increase the production of our sleepy hormone, melatonin but in all honesty, I wasn’t able to source a peer reviewed study with specific reference to newborn sleep that was able to confirm this. In my humble opinion if it works for you, that’s fabulous, but if you are looking to implement an evidence-based approach this one might need further research.
6. Diffusers – There is a whole product market dedicated to selling parents diffusers which diffuse some sort of natural oil along with the claim they will promote better sleep for your baby. Again, I couldn’t find any peer-reviewed studies with specific reference to newborns, nor was I able to find any Department of Health guidelines here in Australia or even from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Given the lack of evidence, if this is an avenue you are thinking of perusing, check in with your GP or paediatrician to make sure it is safe!

Based on all this, what are my thoughts? There is honestly so much information on sleep out there, this is really just the tip of a very large iceberg. As a starting point, look at the sleep environment you have set up for your newborn as that really is the best place to start. By just 12 weeks old my baby girl was sleeping 10-12 hours over night and still napping during the day. What did I do to make this happen? Stay tuned for a rundown of my experience in part 2 of the Newborn Sleep Theory.

The Mum Theory xo

References

Gerard, C, M., Harris, K, A., & Thach, B, T. (2002). Spontaneous arousals in supine infants while swaddled and unswaddled during rapid eye movement and quiet sleep. Pediatrics 110(70). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.110.6.e70

Red Nose Australia. (2021, January 1). Wrapping or swaddling babies. https://rednose.org.au/article/wrapping-babies

Sadeh, A. (1997). Sleep and melatonin in infants: A preliminary study. Sleep, 20(3), 185-191. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/20.3.185

Sezici, E., & Yigit, D. (2017). Comparison between swinging and playing of white noise among colicky babies: A paired randomised controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(3-4), 593-600. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13928

Singh, M., & Jadhav, H. (2014). Melatonin : functions and ligands. Drug Discovery Today, 19(9), 1410-1418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2014.04.014

Spencer, J. A., Moran, D. J., Lee, A., & Talbert, D. (1990). White noise and sleep induction. Archives of disease in childhood, 65(1), 135–137. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.65.1.135