How to Get Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night: What Every Parent Needs to Know

21st July 2026 0 Comments

Last Updated on July 21, 2026 by Mandy Gurney

How to get your baby to sleep through the night

If you’ve searched “how to get my baby to sleep through the night,” you’re not alone. It’s one of the most common questions parents ask, especially during those exhausting weeks and months of broken sleep.

You may be wondering:

Why does my baby keep waking?
Should they be sleeping for longer by now?
Am I doing something wrong?

The reassuring news is that night waking is a normal part of infant development. Babies are not born with mature sleep patterns, and learning to sleep for longer stretches happens gradually as they grow.

While there is no magic solution that works for every baby, understanding how sleep develops and creating healthy sleep habits can make a real difference.

how to help my baby sleep through the night

What does “sleeping through the night” actually mean?

Many parents imagine that sleeping through the night means a baby sleeping peacefully for 10 to 12 hours without waking.

In reality, research studies have used different definitions. Some define “sleeping through the night” as a continuous five-hour stretch of sleep, while others use longer periods. This differs considerably from what many parents expect.

Babies naturally wake briefly between sleep cycles, just as adults do. The difference is that young babies often need help settling back to sleep.

Evidence: Henderson JM, France KG, Owens JL & Blampied NM (2010). Sleeping Through the Night: The Consolidation of Self-Regulated Sleep Across the First Year of Life. Pediatrics.

Why do babies wake during the night?

Night waking isn’t usually a sign that something is wrong. It reflects how babies are designed to sleep.

Young babies wake because they:

need feeding
have short sleep cycles
are still developing their internal body clock
spend more time in lighter stages of sleep
seek comfort and reassurance from their parents

As babies mature, their sleep gradually becomes more organised, and many begin to sleep for longer stretches.

Every baby is different

One of the biggest myths about baby sleep is that all babies should sleep through the night by a certain age.

In reality, sleep is influenced by many factors, including:

age and stage of development
feeding needs
temperament
genetics
health and wellbeing
family routines

Some babies naturally sleep for longer stretches earlier than others. Both can be completely normal.

baby wide awake in the night

Supporting your baby’s sleep

Although you can’t make a baby sleep before they are developmentally ready, you can create the right conditions for healthy sleep.

Simple ways to support your baby’s sleep include:

Create a calming bedtime routine

A predictable routine helps signal that bedtime is approaching.

Encourage day and night differences

Natural daylight, play and interaction during the day, alongside a calm, dimly lit environment at night, help babies develop their body clock.

Make sure your baby isn’t overtired

Appropriate daytime naps often lead to better night-time sleep.

Respond consistently

Babies thrive on loving, predictable responses that help them feel secure while gradually developing their own settling skills.

napping problems

Remember: young babies are designed to wake

Many parents worry that frequent waking means they have created a “bad habit.”

In fact, young babies have immature sleep and arousal systems. Waking during the night is a normal part of early development and helps ensure their needs for feeding, comfort and safety are met.

Following safer sleep guidance—including placing your baby on their back to sleep, using a firm, flat sleep surface and sharing a room (but not a bed) for the first six months—remains one of the most important ways to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

When should you seek help?

While night waking is normal, there are times when extra support can help. If your baby’s sleep is leaving your family exhausted, affecting your wellbeing or becoming increasingly difficult to manage, it may be helpful to seek professional advice.

At Millpond Children’s Sleep Clinic, our team of qualified health professionals takes a holistic approach to children’s sleep. We look beyond the waking itself, considering your baby’s development, health, temperament and family circumstances to create gentle, personalised sleep plans that work for your family.

Looking for more support?

You may also find these articles helpful:

Why Does My Baby Wake So Much at Night? (coming soon)
When Will My Baby Sleep Through the Night? (coming soon)
How to Help Your Baby Sleep Longer at Night (coming soon)
Understanding the 4-Month Sleep Regression (coming soon)

Further reading:

• American Academy of Pediatrics – Sleeping Through the Night: The Consolidation of Self-Regulated Sleep Across the First Year of Life

• NHS – Your Baby’s Sleep Patterns

• The Lullaby Trust – Safer Sleep for Babies

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When feeling overwhelmed by tiredness and in need of real sleep help, Millpond’s ‘Teach Your Child to Sleep’ is a much welcomed, well researched resource. This is an easy read with a practical nurturing approach that walks you and your child through to a good night sleep.
Rozanne Hay, UK Representative and Director for Continuing Education IACSC International Association Of Child Sleep consultants
The Millpond approach is non-prescriptive and [their] book offers lots of choices for parents to match their own goals and parenting styles. I would heartily recommend it for anyone already experiencing problems with sleep or to set up good sleep habits proactively.
Melissa Hood, founder of The Parent Practice
This baby and child sleep guide is the perfect combination of accessible science, Mandy’s years of experience and a mother’s warmth. I love the way things fall into place with Mandy’s clear and thorough explanations!
Diana Hill, co founder of Essential Parent
Millpond’s brilliant blend of commonsense, encouragement and understanding – plus a highly logical strategy that is easy to implement – changed hell into heaven literally overnight. My entire family is thus indebted to Mandy and her team.
Freya North, Author
I am a GP and would recommend Millpond to any sleep deprived parents; you cannot put a price on sleep. Thank you so much. I only wish I hadn’t waited 19 months.
Vanessa, GP
We are so happy that we put our trust in you to help us with what has been a huge problem for our family for almost 2 years. We are finding time to relax and time for each other and I did not realise how much we missed this time.
Ben
As a family, we were sleep deprived. The tailored plan for our son made it personal. I am really pleased with what we’ve achieved during the programme and I am thankful to Juliet and Millpond.
Evrim.
We were at rock bottom. Our son has a neurological condition, so I was nervous and and wanted a sleep clinic who had experience of this and would adapt to the needs of our son. Our lives literally changed overnight!
Shurron
Within weeks our son was waking only once a night. The investment we made into Millpond was one of the best we’ve ever made. It gave my son a solid night sleep and consistency. It gave me and my husband our sanity back.
Shurron
I am delighted. I was aiming to go from 6+ wakes at night and feeding to sleep 100% of the time to 1-2 wake ups and some ability to self-settle. After doing the plan for less than 6 weeks my daughter started sleeping through the night.
Katie
My daughter is now having quite a bit more than the average sleep for her age and it’s lovely to see her waking up naturally. I’m also waking up naturally and feeling much more refreshed for having a regular sleep routine myself!
Louise
We are so happy we could jump for joy, we wish we had spoken to you ages ago. Using Millpond has built our confidence and made us feel on top of it at last. You really gave us some life back!
Sarah
I live in Switzerland so it is really quite remarkable that Millpond was able to help me over the phone and by email. When you have slept you can deal with anything!!
Melanie
We still can’t believe that such small changes have made such a difference to us and Alice. She has even slept through while on holiday in a travel cot.
Louise
We are just so sorry we did not get in touch sooner as we went through 18 months of no sleep.
Ann Marie
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! We never thought life could be improved so greatly. You showed us the light. Luka is much happier and loving his sleep now.!
Diane
Alex is sleeping beautifully again and is now quite happy to lay in his cot singing until 7.30/745 am ( Godsend!) and sleeps very happily through the night again. Thank you so much!
Sandy
Very happy to say that Joshua, who you helped us with, is now sleeping a regular 11 hours a night uninterrupted. In fact, getting him up some mornings is a real challenge!
John
Mandy has been an absolute saviour at a time which was starting to feel quite bleak in terms of our little one’s sleep. The personalised advice and guidance has been invaluable.
Mary
“My husband and I reached out to the Millpond Sleep Clinic when our son was 10 months old. We had spent months in vain trying a variety of sleep training tips that we had picked up online, in a desperate attempt to get our son to sleep for more than 2 hour stretches! Nothing seemed to work. I remember crying whilst breastfeeding for the 5th time one evening, desperately begging my little one to sleep. We felt like we had been failing for a long time, as my circle of mum friends had all got their babies sleeping through so much earlier. I needed to get more sleep, with the return to work looming ever closer.

When we called Millpond, we were quickly introduced to Juliet who immediately took the pressure off us by providing a detailed “plan of action” based on what she had heard about our son’s sleep routine. After just a few nights, we already started to see big sleep improvements, and we worked confidently towards reducing our son’s night wakings and the duration of his night feeds. After a couple of weeks we had gone from 4-5 night wakings to just 1… and a few weeks later, our son started to sleep through! The biggest relief ever.

Throughout the whole process Juliet had been knowledgeable, kind, reassuring and made herself available to answer our questions over email between our sessions. Her experience as a mother herself, and highly trained sleep professional shone through. We can’t thank you enough for helping us through a rough time – and seeing us through to better days (and importantly, nights!!)
Cheryl