Life

Could Your Baby Be Sleeping Too Much?

by Sarah Bunton

As a new parent, most of my sleep-related worries had to do with how my baby and I could get more of it. But, if you've tackled sleep-deprivation and made it through to the other side, you may have something else weighing on your mind. You might wonder, is your baby sleeping too much? Surprisingly, most of my friends who were first-time parents asked this exact question when we would all meet up for play dates. But, since most of us weren't exactly veterans of parenthood, the most we could offer up were educated guesses and thoughtful suggestions.

Thankfully, quite a few experts in the baby and sleep-related fields have some input to put your mind at ease. According to the medical experts at The Baby Sleep Site, "unless your baby literally never wakes up, there is most likely no reason to worry your baby is sleeping too much." When I checked with my son's pediatrician about his sleeping habits, he said that infants, especially newborns, have so much growing to do that they need all the rest they can get. Of course, if you're concerned that your little one is sleeping too much, you should trust your guy and reach out to a medical professional.

In general, though, it seems like the idea of too much sleep is more fiction than fact. When you get right down to the numbers, you'll have a guide for what is or isn't typical. Pediatrician Dr. Alanna Levine told The Bump, "newborn babies sleep around 16 hours a day, but it could be 18 to 20 or more." With only 24 hours in a day, it might seem alarming for your little one to be asleep for two-thirds of it. But, as Levine noted, it really isn't that unusual after all. A good rule of thumb, as Dr. Carrie M. Brown told Parents, is that, "as long as your infant is meeting their developmental milestones, I would encourage him to sleep and catch up on sleep yourself." So now that you can relax a bit about your infants sleep patterns, you might as well take advantage of the situation and rest up, too.