When you first bring a baby home from the hospital, you may find that getting the baby to sleep is quite easy. Newborns are used to sleeping all the time. However, babies are used in dark environments. Before now they did not know the difference between day and night. When you bring your newborn home, you want to start getting your baby used to the different intervals of the day. However, this could be a bit difficult because babies tend to sleep at night and during the day.

Accustom the baby to daylight. Get him out in the sun or keep the lights on in the house. Let the baby understand that the day is when people are awake and doing things, and the night is for sleeping. When you put a baby to sleep, you can dim the lights to simulate the difference between day and night. You should do this for naps during the day. This will help the baby get used to the daily cycles.

A new product on the market is a sunrise simulator. These are clocks that simulate day and night to represent the changes in the day. When you are putting a baby to sleep, start the clock to turn off the lights. The lights will gradually dim until completely off, making it easy to adjust. Begin the process when you are putting the baby to sleep. By turning off the lights quickly, the baby may have a harder time sleeping.

The nice thing about these watches is that you can set an alarm, but turn off the sound. The lights will gradually come on when the end of nap time comes. You don’t want to startle the baby with high-pitched noises or by turning on the lights and startling him awake. The growing light will alert baby that it is time to wake up. It will gently nudge the baby awake instead of quickly waking them up. These sunrise simulators help you have a natural sleep cycle instead of one that makes you feel like you woke up too early.

Helping the baby to sleep by simulating day and night could have long-term effects in helping children to sleep when it is dark outside. Instilling this routine at an early age will help your child know when bedtime is approaching. This is also a different way to help your child fall asleep on his own without letting him cry for hours.

If you see how well these day/night simulators work for your baby, you can come up with these clever alarm clocks yourself. No more burning noises to get you out of bed.