From about 9 months onwards your child needs between 10 and 12 hours sleep per night along with 2 naps of between 1 to 2 hours during the day.

Lack of sleep is a common problem for parents so here are a few tips to help.

The best way to get your child to sleep at night is to establish a good bedtime routine as early as possible. It is the single most important thing to ensure that you and your baby get a good night’s sleep.

Try to settle your child and wake them at the same time each day.

• Avoid rough and tumble games, scary stories, television or electronic devices to avoid over stimulation before bedtime.
• Make sure your child is fed and has a clean nappy before bed.
• Read your child a short bedtime story in their room before bed.
• Try to keep things quiet and calm in the time before bedtime so your child gets in the mood to rest.
• Talk about it being bedtime soon so your child knows it is coming and it’s not a surprise.
• Leave a dim light on in your child’s room so they don’t get frightened if they wake up in the dark.
• It is important to allow your child to fall asleep by themself without depending on rocking, singing or breastfeeding. This means that they will learn to settle themselves when they wake up at night.
• As long as a child is safe and not very distressed it is ok to let them cry for a few minutes during the night.
  If they are crying for more than a few minutes or are very distressed always check on them.
• If a child is getting too much sleep during the day, this could impact on sleep at night. Try to make sure naps are before 3pm.