Baby Sleep at 6 Weeks: How to Gently Help Your Baby Learn to Fall Asleep

Experts say that a few weeks after birth, your baby's sleep becomes more organized. (This means your baby's sleep cycles are gradually taking shape. Put simply, sleep now divides more clearly into light sleep, deep sleep, and dream sleep.)

This is the moment when you can start to set the course and gently help your baby learn to fall asleep on their own (or at least practice it!). In my experience, this is sooo much easier with newborns than with babies who are six months or older and who protest loudly when you come along with new ideas for bedtime (where's the breast, Mom? No way!).

Around six to eight weeks is the perfect time to start practicing putting your baby down drowsy but awake. This gives your newborn more and more chances to find their own way into sleep.

Of course, the sleep environment should be right: a consistent sleep spot, a dark room, and a short nap routine to wind down (for example, a diaper change, the same song every time while you hold your baby, and/or turning on white noise) are all very helpful.

Keep in mind: If you only ever put your newborn down once they are already fast asleep, they miss out on a really important learning opportunity, one that can make life much easier for both of you later on.

It is especially worth starting to practice falling asleep before the often challenging 4-month mark.

You can find more on practicing independent sleep in this article: When and How Babies Learn to Fall Asleep on Their Own

Babies Under 4 to 5 Months

That said, starting "sleep training" or letting your baby "cry it out" is absolutely not appropriate at this tender age (and at other ages, too, I tend to recommend gentle sleep coaching instead). Here you can read some good reasons why a baby under 5 to 6 months shouldn't be expected to sleep through the night yet. If your baby starts sleeping through the night on their own, with no help or just a little gentle support, that is wonderful, of course, and nothing to worry about!

It is debated whether babies in their first 4 to 6 months have the cognitive ability to fully calm themselves and fall asleep on their own. But making gentle attempts is especially promising in the first months and can be a real help for your family's sleep in the future.

Even if you only see moderate success at first, you will still have laid valuable groundwork if you one day decide to be more consistent. Your baby knows their sleep space and is familiar with the experience of falling asleep lying down.

It is a good idea to practice especially with the first nap of the day and at bedtime.

A good and realistic goal is that in the first months (from 6 weeks to 4 to 5 months of age), your baby falls asleep lying down at least once a day. It also helps to develop alternatives to the "nursing-to-sleep association." In other words: enjoy nursing your baby to sleep (that closeness is sooo good for both Mom and baby, and the same goes for bottle feeding in your cozy arms!), while making sure that sucking doesn't become the only way your baby knows how to fall asleep. Unfortunately, this lovely habit is exactly what can lead to major sleep problems later, and it is very hard to change.

So: Stay relaxed in the first months and try, as best you can, to let your baby fall asleep lying down every now and then. If it doesn't work, reach for the baby carrier, the stroller, and so on. Just make sure things stay flexible and your baby doesn't get stuck relying on nursing to sleep or any other single sleep aid.

You can read more about learning to fall asleep independently in this article on self-soothing.

Sleep well, and lots of love! Sarah