sleep conditioning Archives • Nourish: Birth + Postpartum

Baby Night Lights

A quick Google search for “baby night lights” brings you to many magical and cute animal baby night lights and heart-shaped baby night lights but 99% of these baby night lights you see are proven to actually inhibit sleep.

If you’re using a nightlight in your baby’s/toddler’s/child’s room, or plan to, you need to know which type of lights to avoid so you can create the best possible sleep environment for your Little One.

If you already have a night light in your child’s room, and it’s something that emits a dim glow, it may be causing disruption to your child’s sleep, and here’s why:

The wavelength of different colors such as white, blue, and green-based lights inhibit melatonin at night. Melon-what? Trust me, your honeydew will love you for altering your child’s night light situation and your precious babe will be able to sleep longer and stay asleep at night.

Melatonin Magic and Sleep

The sweet sleep hormone, melatonin, is released by the brain when there is a response to light sensitivity in the eyes. This hormone is essential for children to fall asleep and stay asleep overnight. If the world wasn’t clogged with electric lighting, research has shown children fall into slumber between 7:30pm and 8pm.

It’s common for parents to choose cute nightlights that might emit blue, green, white, pink, or purple hues. Blue is especially calming and used by most manufacturers of baby night lights but it’s a scientifically proven sleep disrupter and mistake to use them if you’re sleep conditioning or sleep training, or trying to get your baby, toddler, or younger child to stay in bed or sleep well throughout the night.

Cell phones, laptops, TVs, and almost all home lighting have blue and white-based lights need to be off and out of the area where your child is sleeping or away from your child at least an hour before they sleep. This is because these lights inhibit the body’s secretion of melatonin by tricking the brain into believing it is still daylight.

What’s the Sleep Solution?

Red light is the only light, shown by research, that does not inhibit melatonin because red-based light has a much higher wavelength than white/blue/green light.

The goal is to use no light in the nursery initially. When parents or caregivers come into the nursery for night feedings and diaper changes, you can then switch on a night light that is a red night light. This solution is perfect as red light does not interfere with the chemical building blocks needed for sleep.

However, you need to plan the environment and timeframe leading up to bedtime. Think about the light your child is exposed to before bedtime if you are giving Baby a bath or brushing your older Baby or younger child’s teeth. Is your bathroom lit by regular white light or energy-saving lightbulbs? These emit much more blue light than old-style incandescent bulbs. If so, you may consider investing in a battery-operated light which is more appropriate for preparing for sleep in terms of helping the brain prepare for sleep.

Lights Used When Prepping for Bedtime

In the bathroom when brushing teeth or giving a bath, or in the nursery when dressing into pajamas, when first putting Baby down, or when reading a nighttime story (or two books) to your child, here are options:

Lumie Bedbug Light: A multi-purpose bedtime light which features a low blue light, while still producing a white/peach colored glow. Lumie Bedbug Light is non-inhibiting without having to use a red light in the room while reading or brushing teeth. This baby night light also includes a sunset mode option which gradually darkens the room, dimming after bedtime over a period of 15 minutes. This is perfect for toddlers and older children as well.

Battery-Operated Electric Candles are beautiful, glow like real candles, and create a calm, cozy environment for bedtime. These are my favorite electric candles as their flames actually move and dance. They transform your home into cozy-feel-goodness!

Don’t forget rechargeable battery chargers are a one-time, small investment and perfect for the bathroom in place of the main light at night, or reading area. Not only are you improving your child’s sleep, you’ll all wake less, and you’ll save money on your energy bill! Totally worth it.

Best Red Lights for My Baby’s Nursery or My Child’s Bedroom Nightlight

These are the top red baby night lights I recommend for parents when breastfeeding or bottle-feeding Baby throughout the night or when needing light to change Baby’s diapers during the night, or for your Big Boy or Big Girl when they get up in the middle of the night during potty-training:

Red Gummy Bear Baby Night Light: This red LED gummy bear light is cordless, portable, and squeezable to turn on/off. It has a sleep timer of 1-hour and is soft and durable.

Red Fairy Lights: Effective and adorable solution when used in a lockable Kilner jar as a portable baby nightlight.

Greenic 0.5W Plug-in Light Sensor LED Red Night Light: This 2-Pack Red Night Light is super cute and mini-sized, and very effective for hallways and bathrooms. It can be turned upside down to see less of the LED light. It’s bright enough but also dim enough for nighttime feedings, and quick wakeups for diaper changes or bathroom trips.

Hatch Baby Rest Night Light and White Noise Sound Machine: This red baby night light doubles as a white noise sound machine, which is another recommendation for parents as pure white noise (do not use intermittent ocean waves, water sounds, crickets, etc.) is scientifically proven to help babies and children’s brainwaves when waking to lull back to sleep and sleep deeper. This machine is remotely controlled with your smartphone, features a time-to-rise alert, and you can customize the brightness by dimming the red baby night light as well as by setting the programs to turn off and on automatically based on your family’s sleep schedule. During the day you can play with the other fun colors! It includes a toddler lock feature as well.

Other solutions for sleep include how cozy your Little One is, and how much humidity is in their room. Dryness can cause a thirsty baby or toddler. Read more on how to fix the humidity in your nursery and child’s room for better sleep.

You may also consider BleepBleep’s Suzy Snooze.

Resources:

Sleep training encourages your baby to be on a schedule which will maximize cognitive development. It all starts with a daytime sleep training schedule which greatly impacts their nighttime sleep training outcomes. Neurons grow and brain development increases at an accelerated pace at night. Therefore the quality and duration of a baby’s nighttime sleep have a greater impact on overall growth and development than their daytime sleep. However, nighttime sleep is dependent upon the quality of daytime sleep. This is because babies develop specific, organized thoughts that permit them to learn and unlearn all the sensory input they experienced during the day.

Therefore a good night’s rest means more than just a peaceful night for the family. The actually quality of your baby’s sleep allows her to form memories and start emotionally bonding with those they interact with during the day. Hence, the earlier sleep training begins, the earlier they have this cognitive development tool to help them bond with you, and the sooner she can start forming memories about her family!

When sleep training, Newborn Care Specialists feed, diaper, and care for infants much differently during the night than we do during the day. At night, it’s tough love – all business. You do not want your baby to enjoy getting up at night!

We give your baby a 5 minute relaxing, warm bath.
We give your baby a 2-minute oil massage: downward strokes on limbs, clockwise circles on the tummy, outward sweeps on the chest, small circles on head and face, and sweep downward strokes on back and feet.
We put your baby to bed as soon as they get sleepy but are still awake. This teaches them to self-soothe and shows your baby they are capable to put themselves back to sleep when they wake during the night.

Our sleep training methods at night involve no lights (as we feed in the dark or with a small light on), no talking to them, no singing, no eye contact, no TV, no music, no mobiles, no rocking, no singing, and no diaper changes unless they have dirty diapers.

We do not wake a sleeping baby. Only if the baby is premature and/or the pediatrician instructs do we awaken the baby every 3 hours to eat. When the baby is gaining a ½ pound a week, we allow them to sleep. If the baby stirs, we do not pick them up. We wait until they are at a full cry before attending to them because many times they will go back to sleep. We prefer gentle sleep shaping or gentle sleep conditioning to help soothe them as they physiologically cannot self-soothe on their own.

First, we change the baby’s diaper and re-swaddle. If you are breastfeeding, we bring your baby to you for nursing. If the baby is bottle-fed and a one-ounce drinker and goes back to sleep, we unswaddle and feed more, and if they continue to sleep through, we change them using cool baby wipes on their bottom to wake them up to continue to feed and ensure they eat or they will be waking up again soon wanting to eat. We take care of overnights for you so that you can rest. This includes helping you learn to store your breastmilk and then feeding your baby at night, along with properly sterilizing your bottles.

As your baby grows, then during the daytime our goal is to encourage your baby to consume more so they receive the nutrition they’d usually get at one of the nighttime feedings, so eventually, the baby is getting their adequate amount of nutrition for their weight. Nighttime feedings move to their daytime feedings and they eventually sleep through the night, allowing mom and dad a peaceful and full nights rest as well.

If you need help sleep training your newborn or infant or toddler, I can help you. I do not allow babies to sleep with the bottle as they age. Sleeping with the bottle can lead to serious tooth decay as well as cause ear infections. Fluid from the bottle and germs from saliva drain into your baby’s Eustachian tubes at the back of their throat, leading to their middle ear. I’ve taken over jobs where children have not been sleep-trained properly, waking up to twelve times a night because they were given a bottle to sleep and they couldn’t sleep unless it was in their mouth. They’d wake every time it fell out of their mouth. It is a vicious cycle to break but it can be done.

I’ve also trained children who scream to get out of their crib or bed at 4am or 5am, training them to stay in bed until 7am or when parents deem it to be an appropriate time to start the day. Children need boundaries and structure to feel safe and secure. They want these boundaries and it can be a nurturing experience for them to receive them. It is also exciting for them as they recognize self-accomplishment when they meet your goals; and feel better about themselves and the little human beings they’re becoming.

Tag: sleep conditioning

Baby Night Lights for Better Sleep

Baby Night Lights

Melatonin Magic and Sleep

What’s the Sleep Solution?

Lights Used When Prepping for Bedtime

Best Red Lights for My Baby’s Nursery or My Child’s Bedroom Nightlight

What is Sleep Training?

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