Latest / Baby's First 100 Days with Dr. Roma Franzia / A Surprisingly Easy Way to Help Your Newborn Sleep Better [Backed by Research]

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A Surprisingly Easy Way to Help Your Newborn Sleep Better [Backed by Research] · Baby's First 100 Days with Dr. Roma Franzia

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you want your newborn to sleep better, there's one surprisingly easy thing I want you to start doing today.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: It does not require sleep training, buying anything, or spending hours trying to force your baby onto a schedule.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Dr.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Roma Francia and I've cared for tens of thousands of newborns for more than 30 years.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the simplest things I teach new parents because it works the way a newborn's brain is already developing.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And there's research behind it.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: But before I show you what to do, you need to understand why newborn sleep feels so chaotic in the first place.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Your newborn doesn't have a clock yet.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: When you bring your baby home, you know what morning means.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know what bedtime means.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Your baby has absolutely no idea.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: For nine months there was no sunrise inside the womb or bedtime routine and no reason for your baby to know the difference between 10 in the morning and two in the morning.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then they are born, and we would really appreciate it if they could immediately understand that 2 in the morning is a terrible time to become interested in the world.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, nobody gave the baby that memo.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: A newborn sleep system is still developing, and babies do not have regular sleep cycles the way older babies and adults do.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: In those early weeks, sleep is scattered across the entire 24-hour day.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking, how do I make this baby sleep?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about a different question.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: How does your baby's brain begin learning when it is time to become awake and when it is time to be asleep?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you understand that, the one thing I want you to change is almost ridiculously simple.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your baby's brain is looking for clues.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Your baby's brain is taking in information from the environment all day long.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Light, darkness, voices, movement, activity, quiet.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: These things may seem ordinary to you, but to a newborn, they are signals.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the most important jobs happening during the first few months is learning that some signals belong to daytime and others belong to nighttime.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is why I do not want parents trying to make every hour of the day look exactly the same.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this is surprisingly easy part.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let daytime feel like daytime.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Open your curtains.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let natural light into the house.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: When your baby is awake, talk to them, sing to them, read to them, carry them around while you're doing things, or take them out for a stroll or ride.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if your baby falls asleep in the middle of all that, wonderful, let the baby sleep.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You do not need to close every shade, turn off every sound, whisper through the house, and threaten anyone who drops a spoon in the kitchen.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your newborn kids sleep through normal daytime life.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I want them experiencing normal daytime life because their developing brain is learning from it.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I've taught parents for years gets particularly interesting because researchers have actually measured this.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: A study of babies between 6 and 12 weeks old found that babies sleeping better at night had significantly greater exposure to light during the early afternoon.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The research concluded that normal daytime light appears to play a role in the developing infant circadian system.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So something as ordinary as opening the curtains and letting your baby experience a real daytime may be doing more than you realize.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: But daytime is only half of what I want you to change because the contrast is what teaches the lesson.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Nighttime should feel completely different.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: When your baby wakes overnight, I want you to give them whatever they need.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: If they need a feed, feed them.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: If they need a diaper, change, change them.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: If they need to be held and soothed for a few minutes, hold them.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: But do not accidentally turn two in the morning into another afternoon.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the room dim.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your voice soft.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the interaction calm.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Get the job done.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Love on your baby and keep moving towards sleep.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I even like warm wipes at night for this reason.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what happens when you put a freezing cold wipe on a warm, sleepy little bottom at three in the morning.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now the eyes open and their arms start moving.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The baby looks at you, and pretty soon you're both wide awake wondering how you got here.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: At 3 in the afternoon, talk to your baby.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: All you want at 3 in the morning.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I am loving, efficient, and extremely boring.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that consistently, everything starts keeping that matters far more than an individual bedtime trick.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Your baby begins getting the same message over and over again.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Daytime feels one way, nighttime feels another.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that repetition is how the developing sleep rhythm starts taking shape.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for a pediatrician who takes the time to answer your questions, understand your baby, and give you individualized care, click the link below to learn about my practice.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And sleep is a perfect example of why that individual understanding matters.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's another mistake parents make with very good intentions that can work directly against what we're trying to accomplish.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Don't turn your whole house into nighttime.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: You finally get your newborn to sleep during the day.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody celebrates silently.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Then the shades come down, the lights go off, the television gets muted, and the entire house begins operating like there is a wild animal sleeping in the next room.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I understand why.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you defend that nap with your life, but I do not want you making daytime indistinguishable from nighttime.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: That does not mean waking your baby just because the sun is out.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: It does not mean blasting music next to the bassinet or dragging an exhausted newborn around the house because somebody told you they need to stay awake during the day.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let your baby sleep when they need to sleep.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just stop pretending it is midnight every time they do.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because now think about the message from the baby's point of view.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: If daytime is dark and silent and nighttime has bright colors, bright lights, conversation, television, and 20 minutes of entertainment during every feeding, we have taken away the very contrast their brain is trying to learn.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And once parents understand that, the whole approach to newborn sleep gets simpler.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: You are not trying to force sleep.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is not about forcing your newborn onto your schedule.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Your baby is still going to wake, eat, sleep in short stretches, and occasionally decide that 3 in the morning is a perfectly reasonable time to look around.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: What we're doing is helping those sleep stretches gradually organize themselves by giving the brain the same clear signals every day.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Day looks like day, night looks like night.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And once you understand that, you realize how little you actually need to do.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: What I want you to do tomorrow morning, open the curtains, let daylight into your house.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: When your baby is awake, let them experience you.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Talk, sing, read, go outside for a walk, carry them around and let normal life happen around them.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: When they sleep, let them sleep.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have to manufacture darkness and silence around every daytime nap.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then when evening comes, start changing the environment.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: The lights come down, the activity comes down, your voice comes down.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when the baby wakes overnight, you handle what needs to be handled without giving their brain a bunch of signals that say, wonderful, the day has started again.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the more consistently you give your baby those two different environments, the easier it becomes for that developing brain to begin sorting them out.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the bigger point.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want new parents to hear.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Your baby is learning sleep.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: New parents look at sleep as though it's something their baby should already know how to do.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: But almost everything your newborn is doing right now is brand new.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are learning how to eat, they are learning how to coordinate a bowel movement.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are learning how to process light, sound, touch, and movement.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they are learning how sleep fits into a world that suddenly has mornings and evenings.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So when sleep feels messy in the beginning, I do not immediately assume something is wrong.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I look at what the baby is being taught by the environment around them.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes the answer is that simple.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let daytime be daytime, let nighttime be nighttime, and give your baby time to learn the difference.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if your newborn sleep has your whole house exhausted, start here.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let daytime be bright, active, and normal.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let nighttime be dark, calm, and boring.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Keep doing it and give your baby's developing brain the chance to learn the difference.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: It is simple.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It costs absolutely nothing.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And research backs up the idea that those clear, light, and dark cues help your baby's developing sleep rhythm.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if your baby is awake because they simply will not stop crying and you have no idea what they need, watch my video next on five things I check every time a newborn cries.