If you are the parent of an infant, you’ll want to try to stay awake long enough to read this article. New parents often suffer from sleep deprivation, sometimes for the entire first year of their baby’s life and even beyond. Here are some tips that should help get you on the right track:

First of all, if your baby is less than 6 weeks old, there’s not much you can do except persevere. It often takes babies a good six weeks to recognize the difference between night and day. Their sleep patterns are so erratic that there’s just no point in trying to train them at this young age. Just try to sleep when your baby sleeps and get through this initial stage as best as you can.

During the first four months of your baby’s life, she will likely spend the better part of the day’s 24 hours sleeping. She’s also very portable, so enjoy this while you can, before you get into napping routines and are house-bound. She’ll sleep just about anywhere, through just about anything. Don’t try to limit her sleep during the day, as this will not help her to sleep more at night. Sleep begets sleep. Your baby cannot get enough of it.

Once baby approaches the age of four months, a more clear sleep routine develops. A typical schedule for a four to eight month old is as follows: Baby wakes up around 7:00 a.m. She’s tired and ready to go back to bed by 9:00 a.m. Baby sleeps until 11:00 a.m. She’s tired and ready to go nighty night again around 1:00 p.m. Baby sleeps until about 3:00 p.m. She wakes and is bright-eyed until around 5:00, when she needs a short “cat-nap” of around 20 minutes to half an hour. Baby is ready for the crib again around 7:30 or so, and this time should sleep for a longer period of time. She will most likely continue to wake up once, perhaps twice during the night until she gets to be closer to eight months, when once per night should be about it.

Until your baby is 8-9 months old, she should not be awake for more than two hours at a time. I know this doesn’t sound like a lot of awake time, but if you spend a day observing your baby, I think you’ll find that she does tend to follow this pattern. Once she’s been up for close to two hours, you’ll recognize signs that she’s getting sleepy.

Making sure that your baby gets adequate rest during the day, and maintains a consistent and appropriate schedule for her age will, in turn, help to ensure that a more manageable night time sleep routine takes hold. An overtired baby will not sleep well during the night. Many parents are afraid that having baby sleep so much during the day will result in sleepless nights. Not so. Sleep begets sleep. Further, if you instill good sleep habits at an early age, you’re doing your child a favor for the future.

We all need sleep to keep our immune systems up and running as well as to rejuvenate our bodies for the next day. Make the most of the time that you do get to spend sleeping. Click here for products that you, as a parent can use to improve and increase the quality of your own sleep.