An ideal bedtime for a 3 month old baby is between 7:30 – 9:30 pm. This is based both on the developing circadian rhythm (or body clock) of a 3 month old and also fits in with the 9 – 11 hours of nighttime sleep needed.
Here's our guidelines for appropriate bedtimes, based on age (keep in mind, the lower range aligns with the younger age): Newborns (0 - 3.5 months) - 7:30-9:30pm (later because newborn sleep cycles aren't yet in place and circadian rhythm isn't driving sleep) 3.5 - 6 months old - 7-8:30 pm.
Quality sleep tends to happen before midnight for most babies (and adults!) so don't be afraid of an earlier bedtime. Find your child's “sleep sweet spot”, then stick to it – for babies younger than 12 weeks, bedtime should be around 9PM to 10PM. Babies older than 12 weeks do best with bedtime around 7PM to 8PM.
What time should a 3 month old go to bed? At this age, we start to see bedtimes shift earlier. Plan for bedtime to be 12 - 14 hours after waking for the day but no earlier than 6:00 PM. That means an optimal bedtime for a baby waking around 6:00 AM will be between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
The appropriate bedtime depends on when your baby wakes up in the morning and how many naps they take. In other words, expect bedtime to still vary at this age. While the start of night sleep should remain somewhat flexible, earlier bedtimes between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM are common.
Most babies sleep longer with an earlier bedtime. Many parents are afraid to put their baby to bed so early, thinking that they will then face a 5 a.m. wake up call. But keeping your little one up too late backfires, and more often, a late night is the one followed by that early morning awakening.
However, in general, with a 3-month-old baby with a goal of 14 to 17 hours of sleep per day, that often breaks down to 3 to 5 daytime naps that can last between 30 minutes and 2 hours.
Every baby is different, but a typical 3-month-old needs between 14 and 17 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, including three to four naps totaling four to six hours. However, it's also normal for 3-month-olds to sleep a little more or less than that.
The last feed before bed is vital if your baby is going to sleep longer at night. Often after taking part of the feed they fall asleep. Do not just give up and put them to bed, because in an hour or so they will wake up again for more. Encourage them to finish the feed by waking them.
Your baby will usually be able to sleep through from 7pm to 7am at around 4 months old, weighing around 15-16lb, and you can drop the feed altogether.
School-age children should go to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. Teens should try to go to bed between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. Adults should try to go to sleep between 10:00 and 11:00 p.m.
You may know it well: early evening is approaching, and your baby starts to fuss. The 'witching hour' is a period—usually between 5 and 11 p.m.—when many babies get cranky and irritable, and may be difficult, if not impossible, to soothe. Evening fussiness typically resolves on its own between 4 and 6 months.
Move her bedtime later by about 10 minutes each night until she's hitting the hay about an hour later (or you reached your goal of her sleeping later). This works best if you move her eating schedule later as well, so hunger doesn't wake her up too soon. You might also have to work on your baby's nap schedule.
Babies fight sleep for a variety of reasons the seven most common being separation anxiety, overtiredness, overstimulation, teething, hitting a milestone, traveling and discomfort or illness.
By age 3 months, and sometimes as early as 2 months, most infants are sleeping through the night, according to a new study, although their sleeping hours may not exactly match those of their parents early on.
Sleeping through the night: 71.4% did this on at least one occasion by 3 months of age, but many of these relapse into more frequent waking in the 4 to 12 month period.
3 month old sleep schedule
I would expect morning wake up time to be between 6-8am and bedtime to fall between 6-8pm. This is what is considered normal for their circadian rhythm.
As long as your child is getting enough sleep (check out our age-by-stage sleep chart), then an early or late bedtime is fine as long as it suits your family's schedule. Sleeping from 9pm to 8am might be perfectly normal for a baby in one family, while sleeping from 6pm to 5am is the norm in another.
While adults tend to grow sluggish when they're tired, children often become hyperactive. Whether it's a missed nap or a late bedtime, a sleepy child may seem more animated than ever. When a child doesn't get enough rest, their body responds by making more cortisol and adrenaline so they can stay awake.
keeping the room dark and quiet as you feed baby. letting baby fuss for a few minutes before feeding (If something other than hunger, such as a noise, startled them awake, they may fall back asleep.) using a pacifier and soothing touch to lull baby back to sleep.
Uncontrollable crying in an otherwise healthy baby is traditionally called colic. The crying is often in the late afternoon and evening, and increases over a number of weeks until it reaches a peak. Most babies grow out of it between three months and four months.
For most babies, the witching hour starts to occur around 2-3 weeks and peaks at 6 weeks. It will typically completely resolve by 3-4 months. The witching hour is different from colic.
Period of PURPLE Crying is a research-based education program developed by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. Program materials include a booklet with app or DVD (available in mulitple languages), a 10-minute video on crying and a 17-minute video on soothing.