Most babies can sleep in longer stretches by around 6 months of age, but “sleeping through the night” doesn’t mean what most parents think. A baby who sleeps well still wakes up multiple times. The difference is whether they can settle themselves back to sleep without your help. That skill, called self-soothing, is the real goal, and it’s something you can actively encourage.
What “Sleeping Through the Night” Actually Means
The American Academy of Pediatrics defines a good sleeper not as a baby who never wakes, but as one who wakes frequently and gets back to sleep on their own. Expecting 10 or 12 unbroken hours sets you up for frustration, because infant biology simply doesn’t work that way.
Baby sleep cycles last about 45 to 60 minutes, roughly half the length of an adult cycle. Between each cycle, your baby surfaces into light sleep or briefly wakes. That means a baby who sleeps a six-hour stretch is waking and re-settling four or five times without you ever knowing. When parents say their baby “sleeps through the night,” what’s really happening is that the baby has learned to bridge those gaps independently.
Why Your Baby Isn’t Ready Yet (and When They Will Be)
Newborns physically cannot consolidate sleep into long blocks. Their pineal gland, the part of the brain that produces the sleep hormone melatonin, doesn’t begin functioning until around 4 to 6 months of age. Before that, babies have no internal clock telling them the difference between day and night. Stable circadian rhythms, the body’s 24-hour schedule for sleep, temperature, and hormones, typically develop between 6 and 18 weeks, though they continue maturing for months after that.
This is why most pediatricians recommend waiting until at least 4 months before attempting any structured sleep changes. Before that point, your baby’s brain simply hasn’t developed the wiring needed to sleep in longer stretches.
Build a Consistent Bedtime Routine
A predictable wind-down sequence is the single most effective thing you can do before any formal sleep training. It signals to your baby’s brain that sleep is coming, and over time it becomes a powerful cue. Keep it simple: a warm bath, a feed, a few minutes of quiet talking or a short book, then into the crib. The whole routine should take about 20 to 30 minutes. What matters is consistency, not which specific activities you choose.
A few principles make routines more effective. Keep the room dim and your voice low during the routine. Avoid stimulating play in the 30 minutes before bed. Most importantly, put your baby down drowsy but awake. This is the foundation of self-soothing: if your baby falls asleep in your arms and wakes up alone in a crib, they’ll cry because their environment changed. If they fall asleep in the crib, waking up there between sleep cycles feels normal.
Get Daytime Sleep Right First
Counterintuitively, babies who nap poorly during the day tend to sleep worse at night. An overtired baby produces stress hormones that make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep, creating a frustrating cycle.
During the first month, babies sleep about 16 hours total, with naps lasting 3 to 4 hours each. From 4 months to a year, most babies need at least two naps a day, one in the morning and one in the early afternoon, with some also needing a shorter late-afternoon nap. By 12 months, most babies drop to one afternoon nap of 1 to 2 hours. Watching your baby’s sleep cues (eye rubbing, yawning, fussiness) and putting them down before they’re overtired makes a bigger difference to nighttime sleep than most parents expect.
Sleep Training Methods That Work
Sleep training is appropriate for babies 4 months and older. No single method is superior; the best approach is the one you can follow through on consistently.
Graduated extinction (the Ferber method): You put your baby down awake, leave the room, and return to check on them at gradually increasing intervals. The first night you might check after 3 minutes, then 5, then 10. Each subsequent night, the intervals stretch longer. Most families see significant improvement within 7 to 10 days. This method works well for parents who want structure but aren’t comfortable with leaving their baby to cry without any check-ins.
Full extinction: You put your baby down and don’t return until morning (or until a scheduled feed). It’s the fastest method but the hardest emotionally. Crying typically peaks on the second or third night and drops sharply after that. Many families see results within 3 to 5 nights.
The chair method: You sit in a chair next to the crib until your baby falls asleep, then move the chair slightly farther away each night until you’re outside the room. This is the gentlest structured approach, but it takes the longest, often up to four weeks. It’s a good option for parents who find the crying-based methods too stressful, though some babies are more stimulated by a parent’s presence and do worse with this approach.
Whichever method you choose, consistency is more important than which one you pick. Starting a method and abandoning it after two nights teaches your baby that extended crying eventually gets them picked up, which makes the next attempt harder.
When to Drop Night Feeds
Hunger is a legitimate reason for night waking, and you shouldn’t try to eliminate feeds before your baby is developmentally ready. Formula-fed babies can typically go without night feeds from around 6 months, because formula digests slowly enough to sustain them. Breastfed babies often need night feeds longer; most are getting enough daytime calories to drop night feeds by around 12 months.
If you’re unsure whether your baby’s night waking is hunger or habit, try gradually reducing the volume of night bottles by an ounce every few nights, or shortening breastfeeding sessions by a minute or two. A baby who is truly hungry will not settle easily after a shortened feed. A baby who is waking out of habit will often drift back to sleep with less milk than you’d expect.
Set Up the Right Sleep Environment
The ideal nursery temperature is between 68°F and 70°F (20°C to 21°C), with humidity between 30% and 50%. Babies who are too warm wake more often and face higher safety risks. Dress your baby in one layer more than you’d wear comfortably, and skip the blankets entirely in the first year.
The AAP recommends placing babies on their backs in their own sleep space, on a firm, flat mattress with a fitted sheet and nothing else. No pillows, stuffed animals, bumpers, or loose blankets. Avoid letting babies sleep on couches, armchairs, or in swings and car seats outside the car. White noise machines set at a moderate volume can help mask household sounds and ease transitions between sleep cycles, though they’re not essential.
Expect Sleep Regressions
Even after your baby is sleeping well, temporary setbacks are normal. These regressions are less about hitting a specific age and more about what your baby is going through developmentally. Rolling over, pulling up to stand, crawling: babies often want to practice new physical skills at night, and the excitement disrupts their routine. Separation anxiety tends to peak around 9 months and can cause a baby who previously settled easily to protest being left alone. Teething, growth spurts, and illness all cause temporary disruptions too.
The key during a regression is to offer comfort without completely abandoning the habits your baby has already learned. A few rough nights don’t erase weeks of sleep training. If you stay consistent with your approach, most regressions resolve within one to two weeks. If your baby is at least 4 months old and hasn’t been sleep trained yet, a regression can actually be a good time to start, since sleep is already disrupted.