Babies love their sleep, but oftentimes don’t fall asleep when parents hope they will. As babies need about nine hours of sleep a day and eight hours a night, it’s important that they get their rest. Parents should try the following four tips when trying to get their baby to fall asleep.

Swaddle Your Baby

Babies need to feel safe and comforted in order to fall asleep. Many parents of newborns find swaddling to be helpful when trying to get their child to drift off at bedtime. With swaddling, babies are comfortably wrapped with a swaddle, allowing them to feel a sense of security from the slight pressure of the swaddle. This sense of comfort helps lower the baby’s startle reflex, helping them avoid overstimulation and drift off to sleep.

Use Plush Toys

Babies love to cuddle and this can help them fall asleep. Parents can use plush toys to help their baby fall asleep during supervised sleep sessions. These soft and comforting toys help a baby lull off to sleep. However, parents should never leave toys in a crib or sleeping area if there is a possibility that the baby can roll onto the toy and suffocate.

Try Rocking Cradles

Rocking isn’t just an age-old method for getting a baby to fall asleep. Rocking chairs make use of the rhythmic movement that is a natural sleeping aid. By rocking a baby to sleep, parents are reminding the baby of how it felt to be inside the mom’s body. These calming rocking, swinging, and vibrating motions helps to soothe babies to the point of sleep.

Too tired to keep rocking your baby back and forth? Today’s electric rocking chairs make use of this calming motion while parents sit back and hold their baby without having to manually rock the chair back and forth.

Encourage Sleep with Mirroring

Baby can’t seem to fall asleep? Consider mirroring. Parents can mirror the behavior they want their child to perform by doing it first. Moms and dads should show their baby how to slowly blink, close their eyes, and breathe slowly. As babies naturally want to mimic their parents, this will help them follow the same behavior, which consequently will encourage them to fall asleep.

Parents often have to experiment with different techniques and tools to help their babies drift off to sleep. With the help of swaddling, comforting toys, rocking motions, and behavior mirroring, parents will be able to encourage better sleeping habits in their babies.