How to Fix Your Newborn’s Day and Night Confusion in 3 Nights or Less

Does your newborn have days and nights mixed up? Here’s how to fix day night confusion in only a few days. This can look like the longest stretch of sleep is during the day, not night, or that baby feeds every 3 or 4 hours in the day, but every 1 or 2 hours at night. Here are tips to address sleep reversal. You and your baby will thank us!

---

I’ve had 5 babies and to some extent, they all had day-night confusion.

With all 5, within 5 nights postpartum (not counting the two in the hospital) we had it all sorted out.

Days and nights in order.

Sleeping through nightly feeds and not waking.

Allowing me to have restorative – though broken – sleep. 

You can do it. It’s not rocket science and it’s quite simple.

Be encouraged… your days of Vampire Hours (and witching hours) are nearly over!

How to Fix Day-Night Confusion Quickly

Sleep reversal is par for the course in the early days. Again, it’s perfectly normal for babies to wake at night to feed, but you can have babies who wake only to feed and essentially sleep through the feed.

I know. I’ve had 5 babies do it and you can too. You may want to use our daily baby logs to help you keep it all straight.

Read: Tips For Swaddling Baby At Night

Read: Is Sleep Training a Baby Bad or Dangerous? Let’s Talk Facts!

Lights on During Day, Off at Night

Day-night reversal requires a bit of specific effort.

When you’re feeding during the day, keep the lights on or curtains open. This helps communicate “daytime” to baby. As you approach naptime with baby, dim the lights and close blackout curtains, but help baby associate day with light.

When you’re feeding, changing, or situating at night keep lights off.

This means don’t turn on a lamp. It definitely means no overhead lights.

Get out your flashlight or a flashlight app on your phone. Seem drastic? Well… not as drastic as being up for 3 hours for the next month because baby’s day night confusion doesn’t end.

Related Reads:

• 8 Reasons You’ve Got A Whiny Baby (And How To Fix It!)
• How To Get Your Newborn To Sleep Well From Day One

Read: Separation Anxiety At Bedtime – Calm Solutions For Peaceful Sleep

Feed Unswaddled During Day, Swaddled at Night

As I talked about in my post on 11 things you can do now to have a baby who sleeps well for the long run, feeding swaddled at night is key.

If your baby associates swaddle with sleep, you want them to stay in sleepy mode for nighttime feeds.

During the day take off the swaddle so they can feed awake. Or at least more awake. I’ll even strip baby down to diaper if he is nodding off every few minutes and that works a charm.

Being “free” is associated with daytime and being “snuggled” is associated with sleep. This helps the sleep wake inversion reverse itself.

Related Reads:

• What To Do When Baby Is Feeding Every Hour (& Not Sleeping!)
• 11 things you can do now to have a good sleeping baby for the long haul

Feed, Play, Sleep During Day

The best way to establish day night rituals is to be consistent. During the day you’ll want to make sure your baby is awake to feed, then purposefully try to avoid fully feeding them to sleep.

This is a major sleep prop and  you may find in a few months baby will only sleep this way.

Work it while it works, but know it’ll be a tough transition for baby (and you as a result).

So a newborn is barely awake at all, let’s be honest, but you can open windows, sing, change diaper, feed unswaddled, and then as you are going to put your baby to sleep swaddle again.

You can even feed a bit more to get baby drowsy, then put the baby in his crib (or wherever he sleeps) while still at least partially wake. They’ll learn to go to sleep on their own this way.

Read: Sleep Props and Sleep Associations

Change Before Feeding at Night

When your baby wakes to feed at night, change his diaper before feeding. This does a few things.

It gets the disturbing “wake baby up” activity out of the way and it actually helps rouse them enough to take a good full feed.

If they are too drowsy they’ll just drink for 3 minutes then nod off. This is what causes them to wake hourly instead of 2 or 3 hours apart.

Change, re-swaddle then feed and put back down.

Read: Swaddling Tips That Help Babies Sleep Well Without Startle Reflexes

Stimulation During Day, No Stimulation at Night

This is a big one.

Daytime is for play.

Nighttime is for sleep.

Don’t treat days like nights, afraid to wake the baby up. If it’s naptime, protect the nap. If you are feeding or playing with the baby then it’s okay for some stimulation.

However, at night, keep lights out, voices low, and all forms of Wakey Baby off.

This can be hard since babies are so gooey and sweet, but it’s what makes the difference in the long run.

So there you have it. Baby sleep is not rocket science, but there is an art to it. 

Read: The Dreamfeed: The Why, The How, & When To Stop

Sleep Associations

If you have an infant with nighttime restlessness who you think has day-night confusion, it’s important to focus on sleep associations.

• Create good wind-down routines.
• Make sure baby’s sleep space is conducive to good sleep (yes, newborns can sleep anywhere, but if they’re struggling to sleep you may as well create a positive sleep environment).
• Make positive associations between baby and sleep. Singing, cuddling, etc.

Newborn Soothing Techniques

It’s imperative you know how to settle your newborn. Newborns will cry for a variety of reasons – day-night sleep inversion being just one of them.

Moms who can only settle their newborn with feeding end up having to feed every single time they think baby is unhappy.

We want to settle baby and comfort them based on what they need. Tired babies are comforted by getting sleep. Hungry babies are comforted by milk.

Maternal touch and affection can go a long way without having to pull up your shirt every 10 seconds throwing spaghetti at the wall, trying to get baby to settle.

Newborns need this

Babies go to sleep better and sleep longer when they are calm, settled, and in a good routine.

It doesn’t have to be a huge thing with church bells and four part harmony, but the more you are able to protect your baby’s sleep, create a good wind-down routine, and make it a regular part of your evening, the better your whole family will sleep.

Read: Cocooning a Newborn & 7 Reasons Why it Can Be Good For The Family

To recap, to help your babies sleep better at night you want to:

• Prevent them from getting overtired

• Choose an appropriate bedtime

• Give your baby a calming bath or wipe down

• Before putting on a clean diaper and swaddle, give your baby a rubdown or massage with nice calming lotions

• Have some quiet quality time to help get your baby very drowsy before putting him into the crib.

If you would like to create a simple and easy wind down routine that anyone putting baby down can follow plus some BONUS baby sleep troubleshooting checklists, click here and get instant access.