Three tips to stop the witching hour

The witching hour (or hours) usually occur in the evening anytime between 6-11pm. When your sweet little newborn suddenly seems absolutely impossible to settle. Non-stop crying. Seemingly tired, but won’t sleep. Seemingly hungry, but won’t eat.

For younger babies, especially around 3–6 weeks, these fussy evenings can be pretty common. Crying and fussiness naturally increase in the early weeks and tend to peak around 6 weeks before gradually improving.

But if you’re spending hours every night feeding, rocking, bouncing and desperately trying to get your baby to sleep, there are a few things you can look at to help get your evenings back on track.

• Start the day at a consistent time. Aim to start your baby’s day around 6:30–7:30am (or roughly 12 hours before your ideal bedtime). Newborns are still developing their circadian rhythm, and a consistent morning start helps establish the difference between day and night.

• Watch their nap length AND timing. Too many short naps can leave you with a very tired, unsettled baby by the end of the day. But too much daytime sleep, especially a long nap late in the day, can mean they haven’t built enough sleep pressure before bedtime. Long naps can also mean missed daytime feeds, leaving them trying to catch up on those calories in the evening. You may need to cap their final nap to make sure they have enough awake time leading into bedtime.

• Get them to bed as early as possible. Sleep pressure continues to build up over the day. If they’ve been awake for 11-12 hours (with naps in between) they’ll be ready for bed. You may even need to cap their last nap of the day so that bedtime doesn’t push too late.

• If you’re following a feed, play, sleep routine it’s a good idea to offer two feeds in their bedtime wake window to ensure they’ve topped up their milk tank ready for a decent stretch of sleep. If they do wake shortly after bedtime, just head straight to their room, offer a top up feed and settle them back to sleep.

• Make bedtime feel different from another nap. Dim room, white noise, swaddle or sleep sack and a simple, consistent bedtime routine. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but repeating the same cues each night can help your baby start recognising that it’s time for their longer stretch of sleep.

Solve late night witching hours with our Newborn Sleep Guide which includes age-appropriate routines and sleep tips for the first 14 weeks to help navigate your days and set your nights up for success. 

"At 8 weeks my baby would cat nap all day and cry all evening, and would never settle for bed until 10 or 11. Within days of using the guide he settled into the routine and was in bed by 7!" Sarah

"We started implementing the newborn sleep guide at around 8 weeks old and by the end of the first week she was going down to bed at 7.30pm! Prior to the guide she was catnapping all evening leaving us frazzled and no downtime. We have our evening back. I highly recommend getting this guide!" Khyati

“Every new parent needs this guide, not only will your baby be so much happier following the routines, they will sleep well and you will finally get some of your sanity back.” Tara, G