Baby Bedtime Routine: A Parent's Guide to Better Sleep (Steps & Tips)

How to Create a Baby Bedtime Routine

Human beings—even brand new ones—are creatures of habit. We all have our nightly rituals: Washing our faces, brushing our teeth, putting on jammies, and maybe squeezing in some reading to relax before turning off the light and catching some Z’s. Similarly, creating a bedtime routine for your baby can help them wind down and ensure they’re getting sufficient sleep.

What Is a Bedtime Routine?

Ah, the bedtime routine. It’s a time-honored tradition, a sacred ritual that marks the end of the day and the beginning of the night. It’s a time to wind down, to relax, to let go of the stresses and pressures of the day. And it’s something that we all need, no matter our age.

But what is a bedtime routine, exactly? Well, it can take many forms, but at its core, it’s a set of actions and behaviors that we engage in before we go to bed. It’s a way of preparing our minds and bodies for sleep, of signaling to ourselves that it’s time to let go and drift off into dreamland. The key is a predictable sequence of calming activities, performed in the same order each night.

For some, a bedtime routine might involve taking a warm bath or shower, reading a book, or listening to soothing music. For others, it might involve meditation or yoga, or simply taking a few moments to reflect on the day’s events and thoughts.

But regardless of the specifics, the important thing is that a bedtime routine helps us to establish a sense of structure and consistency in our lives. It’s a way of saying to ourselves, “This is what I do when it’s time to sleep,” and it can be incredibly helpful in promoting healthy sleep habits.

Why Are Bedtime Routines for Your Baby Important?

Routine is everything. And when it comes to babies, routine is absolutely essential. It’s what gives them a sense of security and predictability in a world that can often feel overwhelming and chaotic.

A bedtime routine can also help regulate a baby’s sleep patterns and improve the quality of their sleep. By establishing a consistent routine, you’re helping your baby’s body and mind prepare for sleep, signaling that it’s time to wind down and rest. This consistent "wind-down" period helps to lower stimulation and ease the transition from active wakefulness to a state conducive to sleep.

And let’s not forget the importance of bonding. Bedtime routines are a wonderful opportunity for parents to spend quality time with their babies, to cuddle, sing lullabies, and read stories. It’s a chance to create memories that will last a lifetime.

But perhaps most importantly, a bedtime routine can help set the stage for healthy sleep habits later in life. By establishing a routine early on, you’re teaching your baby the importance of sleep, and helping them develop the skills and habits they’ll need to get a good night’s rest as they grow older.

Babies are born without any sense of time (you may remember the 2am partying while in your womb). A bedtime routine reinforces your baby’s circadian rhythms, a set of biological processes that respond to light and dark, and that “programs” your baby’s natural wake and sleep cycles. Pairing this with consistent wake-up times and exposure to natural light during the day can further strengthen these internal clocks.

Babies thrive on consistency and predictability, and a regular bedtime routine helps your baby learn when they will be sleeping, and provides a sense of security and comfort.

What Are the Benefits of a Bedtime Routine for Your Baby?

A bedtime routine for your baby increases sleep duration, and has a variety of cognitive, emotional, and physical benefits for the whole family, including:

• Research consistently demonstrates that all children, at every age and stage, sleep longer overnight when parents adhere to a dependable bedtime routine.
• Because bedtime routines make getting your baby to sleep quicker and less stressful (and increase the duration of overnight sleep), there are also positive impacts on maternal mood and family function. Bedtime routines: The new self care.
• Children whose parents engaged in language-based bedtime routines—like reading books, storytelling, and singing lullabies—increased sleep duration and had lasting cognitive benefits including higher verbal test scores and fewer behavioral problems (i.e. anxiety, aggression, and social withdrawal). Language-based bedtime routines are also positively associated with general better health.
• Children in homes with optimal bedtime routines showed better executive function (i.e. working memory, ability to focus, and cognitive flexibility), more readiness for school, and had better dental health.
• Consistent age-appropriate bedtime routines and sufficient sleep is predictive of healthy weight in adolescence.
• Improved ability to self-soothe: While not immediate, a predictable routine can help babies learn to associate these steps with sleep, potentially making it easier for them to settle themselves over time.
• Reduced bedtime battles: When a baby knows what to expect, there's often less resistance as they understand the cues leading up to sleep.

When Should You Start a Bedtime Routine for Your Baby?

It’s truly never too early to start helping your baby learn to start winding down and prepare for sleep—babies as young as six weeks old can begin to recognize a bedtime routine. Following the routine every night reinforces sleep cues and helps your little one understand when it’s time to sleep. Even before this age, you can incorporate gentle, calming activities like dimming lights and soft singing as you prepare your newborn for night sleep, laying the groundwork for a more structured routine later.

How Much Sleep Does Your Baby Need?

Although everyone—even your baby—has their own individual sleep needs, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has created some helpful guidelines regarding how many hours of sleep children need at different stages in their development.

The AASM guidelines have been endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

How to Start a Bedtime Routine for Your Baby

When implementing a bedtime routine, it’s important to allow some flexibility and realize that there is no one-size-fits-all answer for every family. But a bedtime that’s considered optimal will usually include a sequence of 3-5 calming activities lasting around 20-45 minutes:

• A soothing bath ninety minutes prior to bedtime helps trigger sleep. Why? Body temperature regulates the sleep/wake cycle—core body temperature begins to drop about an hour before sleep, continues to lower throughout the night, and then begins to rise, acting as a biological alarm clock. The warm water of a bath stimulates blood flow to your baby’s extremities, a thermoregulatory response that decreases your baby’s core temperature.
• A cuddly feeding session about fifteen minutes before bedtime will make your baby drowsy and keep them from waking up because they’re hungry. If you're aiming to prevent a feed-to-sleep association, consider making feeding the first step in the routine, or at least not the very last one before placing baby in the crib.
• Checking off all the hygiene boxes: Brush your baby’s teeth or wipe their gums, change their diaper, and put on clean pajamas.
• Totally avoiding screen time. The blue light emitted from screens can interfere with melatonin production, the hormone that regulates sleep.
• Ensuring your baby’s sleep environment is cool and dark, and use a white noise sound machine to reduce household noises that could wake your baby. Consider blackout curtains to make the room as dark as possible, especially during summer months or for naps. The ideal room temperature for sleep is typically between 68-72°F (20-22°C).
• Reading a book, making up a story, and singing lullabies. Even very young babies benefit from hearing your voice and the rhythm of stories and songs.
• Consider giving your baby a rub down! Gentle infant massage has been shown to increase melatonin production in babies. Use a baby-safe lotion or oil and gentle, calming strokes.
• Swaddling your baby to prevent them from startling themselves awake, and use a pacifier (which also reduces your baby’s SIDS risk).
• Placing your baby in their crib or bassinet when they are drowsy but still awake. This is a key step in helping them learn to fall asleep independently, rather than relying on being rocked or fed to sleep.
• Settling on a regular goodnight phrase to use with your baby, which can be an especially helpful sleep cue when your baby needs to sleep outside of your home. Something simple like "Goodnight, I love you, see you in the morning" works well.
• Aiming for consistency. A bedtime routine offers your little one structure at the end of a day, so try to begin the routine at the same time every night, in the same order. Consistency should also extend to all caregivers involved in bedtime, so everyone is following the same steps.
• Be patient. It can take several days or even a couple of weeks for a new routine to become established and for your baby to respond to it positively. Don't get discouraged if it doesn't work perfectly right away.

Do You Need to Adjust Your Baby’s Bedtime Routine?

For the most part, file your bedtime routine in the category of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. While most bedtime activities can continue throughout childhood, there are a few with definite (or advisable) endpoints:

• Swaddling can be a very helpful tool for soothing your newborn, and your baby can be safely swaddled until they’re about three months old, or they begin attempting to roll over (remember that mastering this new skill can happen as early as two months). Be mindful as your baby becomes more active: Once they start arching their back or can plant their feet and lift their hips, it’s time to transition out of the swaddle into a sleep sack or wearable blanket for safety.
• Toddlers should stop using pacifiers between two and four years old (most will decide to let go of the binky on their own). To avoid a future power struggle, start limiting your child’s access to the pacifier once they’re around eighteen months old—only make it available for naptime and bedtime.
• Bath time may start to resemble play time as your baby gets older. Once a bath becomes more wild than relaxing, it may be time to reconsider including it in your wind-down ritual, or move it to earlier in the evening outside of the immediate bedtime routine.
• Rocking or motion can evolve into a negative sleep cue, as in it becomes too demanding, time consuming, or inconvenient for you. If you’re concerned about that happening, babies usually outgrow the need for motion to sleep around their six month birthday. Weaning them from rocking will be a smoother transition during that window of time.
• As your child grows, the routine will naturally evolve. For example, story time might become more interactive, or they might start to participate more in choosing their pajamas or books. The core elements of predictability and calm should remain, but the specifics can adapt to their developmental stage.

Finding What’s Right for You

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