06/10/2025
Sleep scientist Professor Helen Ball shares four surprising things every new parent needs to know about baby sleep – and what’s really going on when your little one just won’t settle
'I'm a baby sleep expert, this is why your baby won't go to sleep (and what to do about it)'
02 Jun 2025 BY Louisa Sherlock Associate Editor
"Tried all the baby sleep routines, tips and tricks you can find, and your little one still won’t sleep? That’s no surprise to sleep scientist Professor Helen Ball. One of the world’s leading infant sleep experts, she says baby sleep isn’t something that needs to be ‘taught’. Author of the new book ‘How Babies Sleep: A Factful Guide to the First 365 Days and Nights’, Helen says: ‘As a baby sleep scientist, I see numerous recommendations for baby sleep that make no sense. Here are four things about baby sleep biology that new parents should know.':
1. Babies don’t need to be taught how to sleep
I often see comments on social media and reels on Instagram about how we must ‘teach our babies to sleep’ by creating elaborate bed-time routines so they learn it is night-time, putting them down ‘drowsy but awake’ in their cots, and not rushing in when they rouse so they learn to ‘self-settle’.
But stop and think about this for a moment – this isn’t about teaching babies to sleep at all! They know how to sleep from the moment they are born. In fact they were sleeping in the womb before they were born. Sleep isn’t a learned skill, it is a biological process, and all babies will sleep when they need to. So what is ‘teaching babies to sleep’ all about?
It is about trying to make babies’ sleep patterns conform to cultural ideals about when and how babies ‘should sleep’ in a particular society. So don’t beat yourself up if your baby doesn’t stick to the script – so long as they take sleep when they need to you do not need to make them learn to sleep in any specific way.
2. Dark silent rooms for day-time naps are pointless (and can be unsafe)
It can be very tempting to encourage a baby to take long day-time naps. Many a baby has spent their day sleeping back in their cot in a dark silent room all alone, while mum gets on with chores downstairs, and siblings tip-toe around, forbidden to make noise in case they wake the baby.
But taking day-time naps in silence and darkness makes little sense for babies’ sleep biology. We are born with no day-night rhythm (circadian clock) and it takes 3-4 months for it to develop to the extent that we begin to stay awake longer in the daytime and sleep more at night.
The thing that drives the development of the body clock is daylight. Placing babies in dark rooms for every sleep means their brains are denied the cues needed for the body-clock to establish itself. There is also a greater SIDS-risk when babies sleep alone.
Keeping babies near you, in the daylight and everyday noise is best for their safety and their day-night rhythm.
3. Babies can’t fall asleep on command
Well, actually, none of us can! The only time we could possibly do so is if we are already super-sleepy and just longing for the chance to get our head down. This is because of sleep pressure – one of the biological processes that regulates the need for sleep.
Sleep pressure results from the build-up of chemicals in the brain that are a by-product of using energy while we are awake, and which are cleared from the brain while we sleep. The longer we stay awake the greater sleep pressure builds up, and when sleep pressure is high we can fall asleep easily. Sleep pressure builds up much more quickly in babies than adults, which means babies need to sleep regularly during the day as well as at night.
But if their sleep pressure hasn’t built up sufficiently at the time we have decided they should nap, or go to sleep for the night, then they won’t be able to. And sleep pressure builds up more quickly or slowly depending on how much the brain has been active when awake. So nap-times and bed-times won’t easily align with clock schedules.
4. In your arms or on your body is the place they most want to be
Human babies are born with only a quarter of their eventual adult brain size, and grow their brains at a rapid rate throughout the whole first year of life. Due to lack of neuro-muscular co-ordination, and poor muscle tone at birth, our babies can neither cling to us, nor stand and follow us. Yet they need to be in close proximity to us day and night for warmth, safety, comfort and food.
They need to feed frequently day and night, and they do not have the ability to defend themselves or keep themselves safe. Most newborns, and many older babies therefore crave contact and the comfort and safety of their caregiver’s body. Sleeping on you or while being held is the safest place they know, and the only place they can relax sufficiently to be able to fall asleep."
https://www.netmums.com/baby/sleep/im-a-baby-sleep-expert-this-is-why-your-baby-wont-go-to-sleep-and-what-to-do-about-it?
