Newborns & Sleep
Newborns & Sleep
Written by Katie Ruane (Guest Blog), August 27th 2025
www.familynaturopath.co.uk
Babies are amazing, they truly are. They live for around 9 months in the womb growing and developing before coming into the world. And then suddenly they have to do things so differently and they just do it. When they are born they stop getting their oxygen and food through blood via the umbilical cord into their body, and start to breath with their lungs, and digesting milk through their digestive system. It’s utterly incredible the way they just know how to do things so differently in a matter of moments. Because the main thing babies are hard wired to do, is to survive.
So why I have I started this post on newborns and sleep with how they breathe and eat? It’s to highlight that their bodies know exactly what to do. And another thing they know exactly what to do is to sleep. Like a new baby. Not like an adult. I’m afraid we are sold a lie about babies, small children and their sleep. We are told they should be sleeping, well, like an adult, by companies who make an astounding amount of money from parents every year who are desperately trying to het their baby to sleep, like an adult not like a baby. On their own, with no one there, when they have spent every nap in the womb being rocked to sleep by your movement and breathing. Patted by the vibrations of your heart beating and ‘shushed’ by the sounds of your body doing its daily processes. And this is why so often, (not always, some babies fall asleep on their own because that’s what they like) your baby falls asleep when they are rocked, patted or ‘shushed’. And this is exactly what many sleep aids that are sold at us do, because we are made to feel like we shouldn’t be doing it ourselves.
New baby sleep expectations hasn’t been helped by more modern sleep theories being made up predominately by men who have a different biological and chemical response to a crying baby than women. Emmett Hold, a pediatrician in 1892 who came up with the ‘cry it out’ sleep method, said babies should be left to cry, as it was good for them, as it made them use their lungs. I would argue that their breathing throughout the day and night is a better way for them to use their lungs. This has been updated over time and you may be familiar with the “Ferber Method’ created by Dr Richard Ferber, which is a ‘kinder’ way to sleep train as you go and comfort your child periodically until they fall asleep. This approach came in in 1982. There are variations on this including the Gentle Sleep Training approach and more. This is a very brief history of sleep training that began, I know this sounds cynical, when the industrial revolution was in full swing, when it became more common for women to go out to work rather than be at home with the children. By having your child sleep through the night from a young age meant that you could sleep which meant you were functioning better at work the next day. I don’t want to go into massive detail on the downside of sleep training, which you shouldn’t do until your baby is at least 6 months old because of health risks, but in 2019 723 Danish psychologists signed a petition to end ‘cry it out’ sleep training because it’s detrimental to brain health and emotional development.
So again, why am I telling you this? Because I think it’s important you know where parenting fashions come from so you can make a fully informed decision about what to do for you and your family. And history influences everything that happens today.
Frequent night wakes when your baby is a newborn is a protective mechanism. Remember babies are hard wired to survive. That’s it. To feel safe, to be fed, to be warm, and to be dry. The part of the brain that is in control of them still thinks we live in caves and are at risk from predators. They have no idea we have heating, electricity etc.
Their tummies are tiny! In the first week their tummy grows from the size of a cherry to an apricot. So think how regularly you would need to eat and drink if your tummy was that small! Also breastmilk is digested more quickly compared to formula as it’s easier for babies to digest it, so formula fed babies generally speaking sleep for longer. So if you are feeding one way and friends are feeding another, try not to compare your babies sleep to theirs as it will be different. By 6 months their stomach will be around the size of a large egg. So frequent waking’s well into babyhood makes sense; especially when you think of all the growing they do both in their bodies and with brain development. Every experience is a new one to them – try and remember how hungry you were when studying for exams erc. That’s your baby basically every day! Also, do you wake in the night because you are thirsty and have a drink of water by your bed just in case? Well so does your baby. Yet we are told it’s a bad thing if they wake up.
Frequent night waking’s are also a way for babies to help their breathing as when you hold your newborn you help regulate their breathing. Frequent waking’s therefore reduces the risk of SIDS. It also means they get held which lets them know they are safe.
I’ll also let you into a secret, all children, naturally learn how to sleep on their own. And like adults, some are ‘good’ sleepers and some are ‘bad’ sleepers. But every single child will be able to go to sleep on their own, link sleep cycles and not need you to be there. If you are really struggling and it’s safe to do so; I highly recommend co-sleeping. Unicef have a great website and their data on SIDS is and co-sleeping is that if it’s done safely, the SIDS rate of co-sleeping babies could be reduced to up to 90%. If you are breastfeeding and struggling with sleep, and can safely do so, I can’t recommend co-sleeping highly enough. You can wake up, sit up, scoop your baby up, feed, put your baby down, lie down and go back to sleep. And once you master feeding lying down, well, that’s a game changer! And don’t worry, you aren’t ‘creating a rod for your back’ ‘spoiling them’ or anything else. You are simply responding to their needs, reassuring them and letting them know they are safe. Babies and children who are sleep trained still wake up, they just keep quiet as they have learnt that no one is coming to hold or reassure them.
Our children are small for a nanosecond and grown ups for a really long time. You are their universe when they are little. Is it really so bad that they wake up because they need to know you are there?