The Perfect Baby Sleep Environment

The perfect baby sleep environment covers a number of things, including your baby’s temperature and safety in the cot/bed, as well as the brightness of the room. Some babies, including ours, struggle to go back to sleep between sleep cycles. The brightness of the room makes the difference between a 30 minute nap and a 3 hour one! 

If your baby is a light sleeper and has a constant fear of missing out, a white noise machine is essential. Either one that sits in their cot and turns on when your baby makes noise, or one that works for the whole night. We have found this invaluable and still use this now our daughter is 2. 

Having a few bedtime stories you read as part of a routine is a good way to let your baby know that sleep time is coming. ‘Guess how much I love you’ and ‘On the night you were born’ are 2 of our favourites. 

You want to make sure your baby feels comfortable when they’re sleeping. Our daughter loves her Ping, in fact, most nights she falls asleep cuddling him. Cuddly toys don’t have to be expensive, our daughter’s was about £5 from Ikea – love at first sight!

As a newborn, it’s a good idea to not put cuddly toys in the cot with them because of the risk of SIDs, especially near their head. But from 6 months this is a bit more acceptable.

There are different schools of thought on this. One is that toys are a distraction from sleep, ours is that when she wakes up she plays with the toys, giving her parents more time to rest! I like our school of thought and makes a nice addition to your baby sleep environment. 

Many babies move into their own rooms from around 6 months, so you’ll want to make sure they’re safe. We were bought the Arlo Camera as a generous gift! Not only was it super helpful, but it captured some amazing memories! This was a great inclusion to the baby sleep environment and really helped to put our minds to rest.

Lastly, as your baby starts to toddle and understand more of what’s going on around them, a visual clock to show them when it’s time to wake up is super helpful. 

Our daughter like me is an early bird, she used to wake up at 5am every morning. When we introduced the Grow clock, she would stay in bed and not call out until 6am, which is when the ‘sun’ comes out. It does, however, require some training. 

With all of these things in place, a great routine and sleep schedule, you’ll find your child sleeping through the night in no time! We wish you the best of luck when creating your own baby sleep environment and know you’ll be successful!