Most babies don’t start sleeping through the night until at least 3 months of age, and many won’t manage it consistently until closer to their first birthday. “Sleeping through the night” in infant terms means a stretch of 6 to 8 hours, not the 8 to 10 hours adults expect for themselves. The timeline depends on your baby’s weight, brain development, and feeding patterns, but there are concrete steps you can take to help the process along once your baby is biologically ready.
Why Newborns Can’t Sleep Through the Night Yet
Babies aren’t born with a functioning internal clock. The part of the brain that produces melatonin, the hormone that signals nighttime sleepiness, doesn’t begin working until somewhere between 2 and 6 months of age. Before that, your baby genuinely cannot distinguish day from night on a hormonal level. A stable circadian rhythm, where melatonin rises after sunset and drops in the morning, typically becomes detectable around 13 to 15 weeks, though some babies take until 6 months to fully establish this pattern.
Weight matters too. Babies generally need to reach 12 to 13 pounds before their stomachs can hold enough to sustain them through a longer stretch without feeding. Expecting a 7-pound newborn to go 6 hours without eating isn’t realistic and isn’t safe. In the first few months, the goal is simply helping your baby start to learn the difference between day and night, not achieving unbroken sleep.
Build a Short, Consistent Bedtime Routine
A bedtime routine signals to your baby that sleep is coming, and it doesn’t need to be elaborate. The whole process should take about 20 minutes. A bath, a story or quiet song, and a goodnight kiss or cuddle is enough. The key is doing the same activities in the same order at the same time every night. Consistency is what makes it work, not any single magical element.
Two rules matter more than the specific activities you choose. First, avoid screens before bed. TV and devices are overstimulating for infants and work against what you’re trying to do. Second, finish the routine while your baby is still awake. This is the single most important habit for long-term sleep success. If your baby always falls asleep in your arms and then wakes up alone in a crib, they’ll need you to recreate that experience every time they surface between sleep cycles during the night. A baby who falls asleep in the crib learns to resettle themselves when they briefly wake at 2 a.m.
Catch the Sleep Window
An overtired baby is, paradoxically, harder to get to sleep. Learning your baby’s tired cues lets you start the bedtime routine before they hit that overtired wall. Early signs include yawning, droopy eyelids, staring into the distance, and furrowed brows. Physical cues follow: rubbing their eyes, pulling on their ears, clenching their fists, or arching their back.
If your baby starts turning away from the bottle, breast, sounds, or lights, that’s a clear signal they’re getting sleepy and want less stimulation, not more. Once you see fussiness, clinginess, or a prolonged whining sound (sometimes called “grizzling”), you’re running out of time. The ideal moment to start winding down is at those first quiet cues, before the crying begins.
When and How to Drop Night Feeds
Night feeds are a necessity in the early months, and phasing them out too soon can leave your baby hungry. The timeline for weaning off nighttime feeding depends on whether you’re breastfeeding or formula feeding.
Formula-fed babies can generally drop night feeds around 6 months. Formula digests more slowly than breast milk, so a 6-month-old on formula who wakes at night is unlikely to be waking from hunger. If your baby is drinking more than 60 ml (about 2 ounces) per night feed, reduce the amount by 20 to 30 ml every other night until you’re down to 60 ml or less, then stop the feed entirely. If they’re already under 60 ml, you can stop right away.
For breastfed babies, the recommendation is to wait until 12 months before actively night weaning, since breast milk digests faster and nighttime nursing supports milk supply. When you’re ready, the approach is similar: if a feed lasts less than 5 minutes, you can drop it and resettle your baby another way. If it’s longer than 5 minutes, shorten the feed by 2 to 5 minutes every other night over the course of a week.
Sleep Training Methods That Work
Sleep training is appropriate for most healthy babies starting around 4 to 6 months, once their circadian rhythm is developing and they’re physically able to go longer stretches without eating. There are several approaches, and the best one is the one you can follow through on consistently.
Graduated Extinction (Ferber Method)
You put your baby down awake, leave the room, and wait a set amount of time before checking on them. The first wait might be 3 minutes, the next 5, then 10. When you check in, you comfort them briefly without picking them up. Each night, you stretch the intervals a little longer. This method works by giving your baby progressively more space to figure out how to fall asleep independently while still reassuring them you’re nearby.
Fading Method
This is a more gradual approach. If you currently rock your baby to sleep, you start by rocking for less time, then switch to patting, then reduce the patting until your baby is falling asleep with minimal help. It takes longer than graduated extinction but involves less crying, which some parents find easier to sustain.
Pick Up, Put Down
You pick your baby up when they cry and put them back down as soon as they’re calm. This cycle repeats until they fall asleep in the crib. It can be time-intensive on the first few nights, but it reassures babies who get very distressed when left alone.
No matter which method you choose, the critical factor is consistency. Switching approaches mid-week or responding differently on different nights makes the process longer and more confusing for your baby.
Sleep Regressions Are Normal and Temporary
Even babies who’ve been sleeping well will hit periods where sleep falls apart. These regressions aren’t tied to a strict schedule, but they commonly appear around 4 months, when sleep architecture matures, and again around 9 months, when separation anxiety peaks. Teething, growth spurts, illness, and new motor milestones like rolling over or pulling to stand can all disrupt sleep at any point.
Regressions typically last one to three weeks. The most helpful thing you can do is maintain your normal routine and avoid introducing new sleep associations (like bringing your baby into your bed or rocking them to sleep again) that you’ll later need to undo. A baby who was sleeping well before a regression will generally return to that pattern once the developmental surge passes.
Set Up a Safe Sleep Environment
Your baby should sleep on their back, on a firm and flat mattress with only a fitted sheet. No blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, or crib bumpers. Swings, car seats, and couches are not safe sleep surfaces. Room sharing (baby in their own crib in your room) is recommended for at least the first 6 months, but bed sharing is not. Breastfeeding and a smoke-free environment both reduce the risk of sleep-related infant death.
If your baby is cold, a wearable sleep sack is a safe alternative to loose blankets. Keeping the room cool, dark, and quiet creates conditions that support the melatonin rhythm your baby is developing in those early months.