Sleeping Through The Night - When Will It Start?

Before we can talk about when a child will sleep through the night, we need to know what I mean when I say sleeping through the night.


How long is sleeping through the night?
If you search around you'll find anywhere from 5 -12 hours considered sleeping through the night for a baby. I have no idea where the 5 hour definition came from but it seems to be the more scientific definition. I think it is insane. What baby only needs 5 hours sleep? They need closer to 12 hours (well, 10-13, depending on the child). The only reason I can think people use this definition is to make people feel better sooner about their baby sleeping through the night.

Then there's the common 8 hour definition you'll find. I think this has come about because this is how much sleep most adults need. Babies are not miniature adults--they need more than 8 hours. Yes, it is great if they are sleeping at the same time as you and as long as you, but it is not how much sleep they need.

So how do I define a baby sleeping through the night for the purpose of this blog? 10-13 hours, or 12 hours for children over a few months of age, 11-12 hours before that. AND this is consolidated sleep without any feeds. That means no wakings outside of the normal short arousals that all people have during which baby can put himself back to sleep. And maybe some wakings that pop up now and again during developmental and environmental changes.

When will my child start sleeping through the night?
This is such a hard question to answer because so much of it depends on how you do things (yes, I do think you can do something about it. I don't think the only thing you can do is sit back and wait for it to happen, whether it takes 2 months or 6 years.) as well as your child's own personal characteristics. Some children, despite what you do will sleep through the night almost as soon as they are home from the hospital. Other children will take much longer, even if you do "everything right". They are their own little people. The sooner you decide to be OK with this the sooner things will be easier, I promise.

Even though every child varies in how they do things, it is still nice for many people to have some sort of average to look at. It is nice to know when to expect sleep to lengthen and it is nice to know if your child is possibly waking more than he really needs at a certain age.

Depending on where you look and what parenting method you look at you'll get all kinds of different averages. Some will tell you that 12 hours by 12 weeks is very possibly and healthy while other people will tell you it is normal for your child to wake multiple times at night for years. I am more for having children (particularly mine ;) sleep through the night at an early age. I need my sleep to function like a half decent human being and I know many other people are the same. I feel that a child can sleep through the night at a relatively early age and be healthy and happy so I encourage them to do so.

When does the average child sleep through the night?
From my experience, people who do not actively encourage longer periods of sleep in babies are more likely to have a child sleeping through the night at a later age. So, I believe the average age for all children sleeping through the night is somewhat above what it is for those babies whose parents are encouraging longer sleep periods at night.

Here are some statistics from a study at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand:
*Most babies start to consolidate sleep around 3 months
*Over 50% sleep 5 hours at 3 months 
*Over 50% sleep 8 hours at 5 months 
*1/3 aren't sleeping 8 hours by 12 months

What do I aim for?
I work to have a child sleep as long as he is capable (assuming he is healthy and sleeping a reasonable amount). I like to see at least 8 hours (or one night feed) by 12 weeks (it often comes sooner though) and progress from there. There may be one feed at night until 7/8 months, but usually this is dropped sooner.

How many Night Wakings/Feeds and for  how long?           

Age	How many hours straight at night (longest stretch—others may be shorter)?	How many night feeds? (from 7pm-7am, not including the 7 am/7pm feeds)
Birth - 6 weeks	Baby eats every 2-5 hours	Lots! Baby eats every 2-5 hours
2 months	5 + (fingers crossed!)	1-3 feeds
3 months	5-10 hours (some babies will sleep more)	1-2 feeds
4 months	8-12 hours	0-1 feeds
5 months	8-12 hours	0-1 feeds
6 months	8-12 hours	0-1 feeds
7 months	8-12 hours	0-1 feeds
8 months	8-12 hours	0-1 feeds
9 months	11-12 hours	0 feeds
10 months	11-12 hours	0 feeds
11 months	11-12 hours	0 feeds
12 months	11-12 hours	0 feeds
12-18 months	It’s time to stop feeding at night J	0 feeds
18-24 months	It’s REALLY time to stop feeding at night J	0 feeds

How many and how long to do night feeds is VERY debatable. Some people suggest stopping all night feeds by 12 weeks and others suggest keeping multiple night feeds for years. I’ve come up with this list after working with hundreds of parents (possibly thousands at this point) over the years and after talking to some pediatricians.  I haven’t met a healthy, well growing baby yet that can’t happily have all night feeds dropped by 9 months (often before) so I feel confident drawing the line here. 

Average time children sleep through the night from various "experts" while using their methods (when applicable)

• Ferber states by 3-4 months most six month old babies should be able to sleep through the night. He doesn't say how long sleeping through the night is (at least I couldn't find it) but my guess is that he's going by 5 hours.
• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. A newborn's longest period of sleep (which is hopefully at night) is usually around 4-5 hours. "After three or four months of age, all children can begin to learn to sleep well" (p 11). Sleep extends to 9 hours around 4 months (research shows this does not have to do with introduction of solids). There is usually a disappearance of night wakings for a feeding around 9 months of age (p 14). Long sleep periods (reasonable of course and with a healthy baby) do not deprive baby of adequate breast milk but you should always be keeping tabs with your doctor on baby's health (p 17).
• The Baby Whisperer says that most babies will wake twice a night for a feed for the first six weeks (or three times if you include the dreamfeed). By 4-6 months most babies can make it from dreamfeed (10-11 pm) to morning. Babies usually start sleeping aproximately 12 hours when you drop the dreamfeed around 7-8 months.
• Gina Ford says most babies still need 5th feeding until weaned at 6 months, some until around 7 months (p 43). After the 5th feeding is dropped, they will have 4 during the day and none at night.
• Babywise states that on average babies sleep 7-8 hours at night by 7-9 weeks and 9-12 hours by 3-5 months. It encourages you to not let our child go longer than 5 hours at night without a feeding before 4 weeks and your baby under 9 weeks go no longer than 9-10 hours at night without a feeding if you are breastfeeding, or 11 hours at night if he is bottle-fed.
• The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Pantley considers sleeping through the night to be 5 hours. She is more for the attachment parenting approach which generally is fine with, even encourages, babies to continue to wake at night for feeds or comfort for several months to years. Pantley says that waking up once or twice at night for the first two years of life is totally normal and that a child up to nine months of age may need these feedings (rather than just want them for food) and that some children up to a year will still feed hungry every 4 hours and want a feed (p 49).  She also states that "most babies awaken two to three times a night up to six months, and once or twice a night up to one year; some awaken once a night from one to two years old" (p 50).
  
• Sleeping Through the Night - "The rule of thumb is that by six months all babies are physically capable of sleeping through the night, with most being able to do so at a younger age" (p 22). She says that babies usually start to sleep through the night around 8 weeks old but she doesn't say how long sleeping through the night is (although I'm guessing she means 5 hours).
• The Baby Sleep Solutions - She considers sleeping through the night in healthy children as twelve hours by twelve weeks (using her methods, of course).

  If your baby isn't sleeping through the night by the "expected" times, you can consider doing the following:

• Make sure your baby is not sleeping too much during the day. 
• Wait a few weeks. The above "expected times" are averages, that's all. Every baby is different. Some simply take longer to sleep through the night.
• Help your baby distinguish night from day. 
• Have a good sleep environment (see index for multiple posts on this)
• Consider doing the eat/wake/sleep cycle.
• Help your baby drop a night time feed. Check with your pediatrician before trying this to make sure your baby is old enough and healthy enough to do this. First off, keep track of your child's awakenings. Often if he is waking up at the same time each night he is waking up habitually and doesn't really need the feed. If he is waking up at various times, there could be multiple reasons, needing or wanting to eat being one of them. See the night waking post for more.
• Teach your child to fall asleep and put himself back to sleep following awakenings all by himself. See top sleep tips and various sleep training tips in the sleep training index for more on this.

Some Extra Stuff

• Breastfeeding moms need to be mindful of their milk supply. Some moms are able to go longer at night than others without compromising their milk supply.
• Always be mindful of your baby's healthy status by monitoring his weight, input and out put and by following the directions of your Pediatrician.
• Once again, although I believe you can help encourage a child to sleep through the night, they are their own little selves and will still vary when they are capable of doing this.
• Some children take some time to sleep through the night consistently. It isn't uncommon for a child's sleep to go back and forth for a while before it settles on the longer sleeping period.
• Please don't connect being a good parent with having a child sleep through the night at an early age. They are not one in the same.

What about my kids?
Knowing what my kids have done is only so helpful because they are such a small sample group but I will mention it anyway since a lot of people ask. I used the Eat/Wake/Sleep routine and 4 S Routine along with some gentle ST methods (offered a pacifier if baby had recently eaten or if baby didn't seem very hungry, waited before rushing in to see if baby would fully wake for a feed or go back to sleep in a minute) to encourage longer sleep at night with my kids. One thing to note is that my boys were big babies and my daughter was a small baby and that I have exclusively breastfed each of them past a year with no supply issues--see breastfeeding and routine for more on this. I got all the dates from the journal I keep for my kids that I mentioned here. There is no way I'd be able to remember this! Remember not to compare your kids to mine! I am just mentioning these specifics because people as me about them all the time.

My oldest, Joshua, slept 8 hours for the first time at 7 weeks old. By 10 weeks he consistently slept 8 hours. Within a week he had moved to consistently sleeping 10-11 hours at night. He slept 12 hours right before turning 4 months old but not consistently until 5 months old when I dropped the dreamfeed for good (I was too nervous to completely drop it before this time ;)

I didn't do a dreamfeed with Jacob. He slept 8 hours for the first time at 5 weeks old. But this didn't get consistent for several weeks. He slept 12 hours for the first time at 3.5 months. At 4.5 months he slept 11-12 hours most of the time but he wasn't totally consistent with 12 hours until around 8 months of age.

Stella started sleeping 12 hours at night, consistently, just before 4 months of age. I never did a dreamfeed with her. She is a very good sleeper, especially since she started sucking her thumb around 6 months of age. She even sleeps better than her older brother Jacob!

I also didn't dreamfeed Nora. She surprised me and slept 12 hours for the first time at 2 months of age. She did this on and off for a bit but more so than not. Besides some pacifier issues that we had for a short time (I chose to keep it for various reason and pop it back in for her...) and weaning from the swaddle she has slept well at night from the time she was a couple months old. She of course has had the night here and there that are off. Like Stella and Jacob, she struggled for a bit the first 1-2 months at night and needed some of my assistance to go to sleep and stay asleep, but it steadily improved.