It is OK for a newborn to sleep anywhere between sixteen to twenty hours in a day and the sleeping time gradually decreases as the babies grow up. At three months, a baby is sleeping for about fourteen to fifteen hours and this comes to about ten hours by the time the baby is six months old and eight to nine house by eighteen months. As babies grow, they are more curios, they are developing fast and want to explore more and they are awake in the day time. A mother may feel that they are spending about an hour to put the baby to sleep and then the baby is up in hardly fifteen minutes. Babies do take short naps and they tend to be active during the day and spend about four to five hours sleeping. A baby may also wake up frequently at night asking for feeds and this is just separation anxiety. Some babies have sleep disorder where it is very difficult to put the baby to sleep. It may be due to hunger or it may be due to colic that the baby is unable to sleep.

Yes, babies do need silence to sleep but this does not mean that there should be pin drop silence and everyone should talk in whispers. If a baby is fed and he is full, the baby will automatically sleep. In the first three months, babies are just feeding and sleeping, sometimes a baby will sleep through the loudest noises and in some cases, babies are very easily startled and even the slightest noise may wake up the baby from sleep.

In the Western world, it is a common practice for the baby to be in a separate crib the moment she is born and then in a separate cot. Rooming in is advisable in the first few months as it helps to promote mother and baby rapport and interaction and also establishing breast feeding. As the baby grows, it is common in India to share the bed with the parents . At around eighteen months to two years, the baby can be made to sleep on a separate cot in the same room. By four to five years, the child is ready to be sleeping in another room.

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