A common piece of parenting advice when it comes to baby’s nighttime sleep is the dream feed.
What is a Dream Feed?
A dream feed is when you offer your baby a feed right before you go to bed yourself, in the hopes that they sleep for a longer stretch.
The idea is to rouse baby just enough so that they fill their little tummy and then drift right back off to sleep, giving everyone a few extra hours of rest before the next feed.
It sounds pretty great, doesn’t it?
But a dream feed rarely helps a baby sleep longer stretches in the night. In fact, it often creates more problems with your baby’s sleep.
Here’s why:
1. It interrupts sleep
Babies can’t actually eat while they’re in deep stages of their sleep cycle. When you go in to feed your baby, he has to at least come to the surface of sleep in order to eat. And the first part of the night is when we do most of our deep sleep, which is the most restorative. Therefore, a dream feed interrupts your baby’s deep, restorative sleep.
2. It may not actually give you much extra time
Oftentimes, a dream feed doesn’t make that much a difference in terms of how long baby sleeps after the feed. As your baby is pulled into a lighter stage of sleep to eat, he’s probably pretty sleepy and not getting an adequate feed anyways. Many parents find that their baby still continues to wake up a few hours after the dream feed.
3. It can create a feed-to-sleep association
A dream feed can encourage a baby to develop a feed-to-sleep association. This is when a baby relies on being fed in order to fall asleep. As a result, they need mom or dad’s help to fall asleep initially and to get back to sleep after any wake-up in the night.
4. It can create a habitual wake-up
When a baby is pulled out of deep sleep every night at the same time (say 10 p.m.) it interrupts their natural sleep pattern. This can result in your baby continuing to wake up at that time out of habit, even when he’s not actually hungry.
Although your baby may continue to seem like he’s hungry at this time, he has simply adapted to the feeding schedule you’ve set. And because the dream feed can create a feed-to-sleep association, your baby’s feeling of “hunger” is wrapped up with tiredness and he likely doesn’t realize the difference between those two feelings.
5. It can interfere with consolidation of nighttime sleep
As babies get older, their sleep starts consolidating into longer periods. And the first part of the night is what ends up consolidating into a full night sleep. A dream feed interferes with a baby’s natural tendency to start sleeping for longer stretches in the night.
For these reasons, my advice is not to bother with a dream feed. You’re much better off teaching your baby the skills for sleeping well and just allow their sleep to consolidate naturally.
Ready to help your baby learn the skills for sleeping well? Schedule a Free Sleep Evaluation Call to learn how I can help.