Here we are, my daughter Thea (then two months old) and I working on our circadian rhythms like it was our job! A labour-intensive, unpaid job.

Melatonin is one of the major hormones produced by the pineal gland that controls our circadian rhythm. Did you know that the pineal gland of a newborn baby does not produce melatonin for the first couple months of their life? A study on the chronobiology of newborns showed that infant nocturnal sleep onset (the production of melatonin) develops between day 45-60 of life.

I’m no baby sleep expert, but here are some tips that help humans in general get better sleep, so it makes sense that they worked for us in developing Thea’s nighttime sleep schedule. At two months, Thea had been consistently sleeping on a schedule of falling asleep ~8:30-10pm and sleeping until ~5:30-7am, which is consistent with the August sunset and sunrise 🤗.

😴 Expose baby to (indirect) sunlight during the day. We went outside every day and did not nap in complete darkness. Many days were spent contact napping in the back yard!
😴 Turn down artificial lights as bedtime approaches especially blue light from screens, fluorescent and LED lights.
😴 Make baby’s room or wherever they sleep at night absolute pitch black. The more light, the less melatonin is produced – any light at all can block melatonin production (including screens and alarm clock lights). Even if eyes are closed and not looking at the light, there are light receptors in skin that detect light.
😴 Reduce social interaction and noise unless it’s white noise (which mimics sounds within the womb and helps to sooth baby).
😴 I supplement with magnesium every single night. Besides being a muscle and nervous system relaxant (and serves many other purposes in the body), magnesium helps regulate circadian rhythm. What I ingest, baby gets through breast milk.
😴 Speaking of breast milk, breastfeed baby before bedtime. Evening breast milk contains melatonin from the mother, which is then transferred to baby. This is the only way that baby can get melatonin to help regulate their circadian rhythm prior to that 60 day mark.

#welovesleep #circadianrhythm #melatonin #thefourthtrimester #holisticnutrition