The Sleep Expert’s Guide to Optimizing Baby’s Sleep Environment

Are you ready for the easiest way to improve your infant’s sleep?? Something that you can change tonight and start seeing results from right away?? This article is for you!

Sleep Schedule Generator

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Intro

Hey, girl!

I’m Ashley Thompson – Catholic homeschooling mom, wife, and businesswoman, amateur gardener, aaaand Certified Pediatric Sleep Consultant.

In today’s article, we are going to talk about how to optimize your baby’s sleep environment – whether that’s still in your room or whether baby has moved to his own room. Optimizing the sleep environment alone can make a huge difference in how well your baby sleeps.

So let’s dive right in!

Storytime 

Okay, storytime.

Once upon a time, my husband was super into the Paleo Diet. If that’s an unfamiliar term, the Paleo Diet is a diet intended to reduce inflammation caused by certain food groups. It’s supposed to resemble the diet of how humans used to eat. For this diet, you cut out grains, dairy, legumes (think: peas, beans, peanuts,) and refined sugar. Some people cut out more.

My husband is … persistent. And when he finds something that he likes, whether it’s a diet, a new exercise regime, or a new business venture – buy-and-hold real estate, anyone? – it’s all he can talk about, and he wants me to reap the benefits he’s read about, too.

I’m a pretty stubborn girl who likes her routine – including the foods I eat. And the paleo diet sounded like W-O-R-K.

But, it was important to him – he really wanted me to experience the potential hormone-stabilizing benefits. So eventually I folded and gave it a shot.

But the bread, the cheese we had … it would just stare at me, ya know? “Eat me! I’m delicious!” it would say.

So I decided to change my environment.

I used up what I could of the foods I would no longer be eating. And what I couldn’t use up relatively quickly and didn’t feel bad about tossing (like candy, sweets, etc.), I just chucked.

And I stocked the cupboards and fridge with foods I could eat. I still remember standing in Whole Foods, staring at the pretend-chips aisle, asking advice from a fellow-shopper about what was good and what was gross. Even more than advice, I think I really just wanted to connect with someone else who ate these strange concoctions.

And you know what?

It was hard. But it helped.

And that’s the whole point, right?

When you try to start a new habit, especially one that rocks your world, you want to make success as easy and as inevitable as possible.

A Habit-Building Sleep Environment

Optimizing your baby’s sleep environment is absolutely essential to your baby’s sleep training success.

When anyone tries to learn a new habit, be it a new diet, waking up early to do a Miracle Morning, getting back into exercising, or sleep skills and habits – optimal environment is absolutely vital to success.

And especially when we’re trying to help our babies learn new skills!!

As babies, we can’t exactly hold a conversation with them, like, “Hey! These new sleep habits will totally transform your life! You’ll be happier and healthier. You’ll feel better, and learn more easily. Now, what I want you to do is figure out your own strategy to soothe and fall asleep on your own. Okay? Go ahead.”

Even for ourselves – when we build a new habit, just telling ourselves why it’s important doesn’t usually work.

We have to set the stage. Make it as easy as possible. Reduce the risk of interference.

In the incredible book Atomic Habits by James Clear, the author – a true master of habits – states, “the environment is like an invisible hand that shapes our behavior.” 

He talks about how to design our environment in a way so that it makes our desired behavior easier, and our undesired behavior harder.

This plays in our sleep environment in aspects like how dark we want the room to be, etc. – I’ll explain more when we get to that section.

Areas of Focus

This episode is going to be jam-packed!! We’re going to be exploring all things baby sleep environment, including:

1.     Sleep space – meaning, where specifically your baby sleeps

2.     Level of darkness

3.     Sound level

4.     White noise

5.     Room temperature

6.     And which room

Sleep Space

Our first environmental target is baby’s sleep space. We want baby to sleep safely and comfortably. So they need to be laid on their back on a flat surface, designed specifically for baby sleep; no incline. If they haven’t started rolling yet, you can use a bassinet. And once baby starts rolling or grows too large for the bassinet, you can move him to his crib or a pack’n’play. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) actually just updated their safe sleep guidelines – I will link to them in the show notes: https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2022/american-academy-of-pediatrics-updates-safe-sleep-recommendations-back-is-best/.

Choosing a breathable surface helps to keep your baby cooler, which helps promote sleep. So opt for breathable fabrics for baby’s crib or sleep space.

 Now, if you want to go all-in on breathability, you can also choose a breathable mattress like the Newton which claims to have a breathable core. This may also keep your baby cooler and more comfortable.

Level of Darkness

Now let’s talk level of darkness.

Chances are, your mom or grandma has recommended letting your baby fall asleep in the bright living room so they “learn to sleep anywhere.”  However, if you’re like me, you want to make falling asleep and staying asleep as easy as possible for kiddo. Personally, I don’t sleep well in a bright room, and I don’t expect my babies to either.

Baby’s sleep space should be as dark as possible. It is highly unlikely for infants to be afraid of the dark. And, in fact, it can be helpful for them to not see anything – lack of stimulation helps to promote sleep.

If you want to read more about it, check out the article: How Dark Should My Child’s Bedroom Really be? I’ll link to it in the show notes. There is a darkness scale in the article so you can see just how dark “dark” is.

I recommend using room-darkening shades. I’ll link to the ones we have in the article notes.

You can let a smidge of light peek through during naps in order to help differentiate between day and night sleep, but if you notice it’s not helping, then make it Level 10 dark again.

And in the middle of the night, when you need to change baby’s diaper or make a bottle, if you use a nightlight, opt for a red- or deep orange-hued color – it will inhibit melatonin production less than cool-colors. And you can hide the night light behind a picture frame to dim the full illumination if it’s too bright.

Sound Level

Next we have sound level.

Just as with the level of darkness, you’ve probably had a well-meaning aunt or friend tell you to let baby fall asleep in a noisy room so they learn to fall asleep with family noise. 

And, just like with falling asleep in a bright room, this may be fine for some newborns due to their immature sleep structure, but chances are, it won’t work for most babies beyond the newborn phase. And for many newborns, it’s still not supportive of optimal sleep.

I recommend that baby’s sleep space be super quiet aside from white nose.

White Noise

Speaking of white noise …

White noise is like a secret weapon in the sleep space. Technically, white noise is a sleep prop. In fact – it’s one of my own sleep props! I can’t fall asleep easily without it.

The difference between white noise as a sleep prop and sleep props like nursing to sleep or rocking or a pacifier is that you don’t have to keep replacing white noise throughout the night. You just leave it on.

White noise is soothing because it’s like the sounds baby heard in the womb.

And it also helps to drown out background noise that the family makes. That way your older kiddos can still play in the next room … as long as they’re not screaming. ;) You can vacuum, talk on the phone, unload the dishwasher, sing along to your music, watch an episode of Ted Lasso, or scroll through Instagram with – *gasp* - the sound on! ;)

I’ll link to the white noise machine we use in the show notes, but don’t feel like you have to get that brand. I chose that one for our family because it had the low-pitch sound I wanted, had excellent reviews, and was affordable. But there are a lot of great options. Just aim for a pink- or brown-hued white noise with consistent volume level. No music or crickets or birds – it’s too stimulating. 

Room Temperature

Next we have room temperature.

Keep the room comfortable and cool – preferably between 68-70° Fahrenheit, which is 20-21° Celsius.

This cooler temperature makes it easier for baby to fall asleep and stay asleep because baby’s body temperature drops slightly when she falls asleep, and this room temperature helps support and maintain that transition.

The general rule of thumb is to dress baby in no more than one layer more than you would be comfortable in. I have a visual guide for how many layers to dress your baby in based on the temperature of the room that I’ll link to in the show notes. And in the AAP’s most recent recommendations update, they said that they don’t recommend weighted swaddles or weighted blankets of any kind for babies.

Which Room  

Finally, we’re going to talk about which room baby should sleep in.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that baby sleeps in the same room as his parents for the first 12 months in order to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

This is what I recommend as well. Have baby sleep in his own bed in your room.

We successfully sleep trained all 3 of our babies – at 3-, 4-, and 5-months respectively in their cribs in our bedroom without any barrier between us. It is definitely doable.

Summary

Today we learned how an infant sleep expert optimizes a baby’s sleep space:

1.     In baby’s own bed, on a baby-safe, flat surface with a tightly-fitting sheet

2.     With the room as dark as possible

3.     As quiet as possible

4.     Using white noise

5.     With a temperature of 68-70° Fahrenheit (20-21° Celsius)

6.     In your bedroom for the first 12 months

And that’s it for today!

Homework

If this was helpful, please share this episode with your favorite mom friend. I don’t know about you, but I love podcast recommendations from my friends.

And follow along on my Instagram page @PlaySleepGrow for weekly sleep tips and a dash of relatable mom humor.

Speak soon!

Ending Legal Note

Please remember that this is a article for personal use. It is not medical advice and should not be considered or used as such. I am not a medical sleep professional. And though I am a pediatric sleep consultant and speech language pathologist, the information I present on this blog is general information that I have gathered through my own education, research, and experience and not specific to you or your child. Before implementing any ideas or suggestions I may provide, please clear it with your or your child’s doctor first.

Resources in this article:

1.     Atomic Habits by James Clear - https://amzn.to/3NjjE5z

2.     Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod – https://amzn.to/3xNirxR

3.     Free Room Darkness Scale – https://www.playsleepgrow.com/free-resource-library-opt-in

4.     Room-Darkening Shades – https://amzn.to/3QFL0pD

5.     Red Night Light -  https://amzn.to/3OhwKSf

6.     White Noise Machine - https://amzn.to/3N7SwXm

7.     Breathable Sheets - https://amzn.to/3ycsRbA

8.     Newton Mattress – http://newtonbaby.refr.cc/playsleepgrow

9.     American Academy of Pediatrics Updated Safe Sleep Guidelines - https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/doi/10.1542/peds.2022-057990/188304/Sleep-Related-Infant-Deaths-Updated-2022?autologincheck=redirected

10.  Article: How Dark Should My Child’s Bedroom Really Be? - https://www.playsleepgrow.com/articles/dark-room

11.  Dressing Baby for Sleep Based on Room Temperature Visual Guide - https://www.playsleepgrow.com/free-resource-library-opt-in 

Note: The links in the article notes may include affiliate links. If you use one of these links, I may receive compensation for your purchase, but it will not increase the cost of your purchase and I would only ever recommend a product that I myself would or do use.

Hi!

I’m Ashley Thompson -  mom of 3, wife, Catholic homeschooler, and Certified Infant Sleep Consultant.

I provide 1:1 infant sleep coaching to help growing families reclaim structure and peace through sleep training.