What is sleeping through the night?

Before we get into this week’s post, I think it’s really important to point out this one fact: sleeping through the night means different things to different people. We all view our child’s sleep differently and if asked, we’d all rate our night’s sleep based on our own needs and how we’re personally feeling at that time. With that out of the way, let’s dive in. What IS sleeping through the night?

Is your baby good?

Note to anyone about to go visit a new baby. Don’t ask the parent if they are ‘good’! And while we’re at it, don’t ask if they sleep well either. Its the one question that so many ask, and the one that causes so much conflict for new parents. Am I doing something wrong? Is there something wrong with my baby? How much sleep should they be getting?

For so many parents, sleeping through the night is the Holy Grail, thanks to constant pressure from well meaning visitors, social media and so on. But what do we really class as sleeping through the night? Well this depends on who you ask.

Sleeping through…

Having previously asked for opinions on my Facebook page and Twitter, I can tell you that it really depends! Answers varied from 8 hours, to not getting up before 5am. I know that some families say that as long as their child goes straight back to sleep after a feed and they are not having a long wake up (or two, or three), they are sleeping through the night.

Sleep experts say 5 hours or more is classed as sleeping through. Personally I disagree. I don’t think that is sleeping through- most adults need more than 5 hours at night!  I believe sleeping through the night is your child not getting you up from, when you get them down to bed at night until your acceptable wake up time.

There is the possibility that to reach my goal of sleeping through will take longer than reaching 5 hours of continuous sleep. Though I wish us sleep experts could just agree on what sleeping through the night actually means.

Oh and next time a fellow Mom tells you her little one is sleeping through the night, just be aware, her idea of sleeping through the night will probably be very different to yours.