This information is intended for healthy, full-term babies. Always follow the advice given by your pediatrician, nurse, or other healthcare professionals. If you have concerns about your child's health, consult a healthcare professional.
Offering a dream feed means waking and feeding your baby one last time before you go to bed. The goal is to extend the time you get to sleep before your baby wakes up again. In this article, weâll cover everything you need to know.
A dream feed involves gently waking your baby a few hours after theyâve gone to sleep for the night to nurse or bottle-feed them one last time before you head to bed. The idea is to extend the time you can sleep before your baby wakes up, helping their longest sleep stretch align with when you go to bed.
A dream feed isnât a usual recommendation but rather a method developed by sleep coaches and experts. Itâs perfectly fine to give it a try if you think it might help you get a bit more sleep.
Typically, a dream feed is offered about 2-3 hours after your baby has fallen asleep, usually around 9-11 PM, depending on when your baby goes down and when you want to go to sleep. The exact timing will vary. Try different times to find what works best for you, aiming for a moment when:
Your baby has slept long enough to be hungry for a full feeding
Itâs good timing for you to go to bed afterward
Your baby hasnât slept so long that theyâve used up their longest sleep stretch
Pick up your baby to nurse or bottle-feed, or lie down next to them for side-lying breastfeeding, gently waking them just enough to get interested in eating. Keep in mind, itâs important to always bottle-feed your baby while holding them; feeding while theyâre lying down isnât considered safe. Side-lying breastfeeding is fine as long as both you and your baby are lying on your sides in a C-position, with your baby facing you.
Try to avoid fully waking your baby. Keep the room dim, and calmâdonât talk much or stimulate them. The goal is for them to wake just enough to want to eat, but not so much that it disrupts their night and makes it hard for them to fall back asleep.
Give your baby the breast or bottle, aiming for them to have a full meal, just like they would during other feedings throughout the day or night. How long or how much they eat will depend on their usual feeding habits. Try to nurse for about the same amount of time as you normally would, or offer the same amount of milk in the bottle.
If itâs tough to get your baby to eat during a dream feed, this method might not be the best fit for you. Check out the section âIs dream feeding right for everyone?â for more guidance.
After feeding, help your baby go back to sleep if they havenât already drifted off during the feeding. This can be a bit tricky, so try experimenting to see what works best.
Speak softly and move slowly. You might try gently rocking your baby in your arms or sitting on a yoga ball. When laying them down, do it graduallyâstart with their feet, then their bottom, and finally their head. Keep a hand on their belly for a little while afterward. You can also try making a steady, continuous âshhhâ sound while rocking and laying them down.
Some babies need to reach deep sleep before being laid down, which usually takes about 8-10 minutes. If the sleeping area is cold, it might make laying them down more difficult, so warming the spot slightly can help.
Dirty diapers should always be changed, but if your baby is only a little wet, you can leave it if you prefer. However, if the diaper is very wet, itâs best to change it.
Changing a diaper during a dream feed is a bit of a judgment call. On one hand, it can wake your baby up too much, making it harder for them to fall back asleep. On the other hand, a wet diaper might cause them to wake up earlier than they would during their longer sleep stretch.
It might be a good idea to change the diaper before or halfway through the feeding to make it easier for your baby to fall back asleep afterward.
Yes, you can feed a baby whoâs almost asleep but still awake enough to nurse or bottle-feed actively. Just look for movement at their temple and listen for swallowing sounds. For a dream feed, your baby doesnât need to wake up more than necessary to eat enough.
If youâre bottle-feeding, always hold your baby while feedingânever feed them lying down in a crib or similar. Make sure theyâre awake enough and actively feeding to avoid any risk of choking.
Most babies start to develop a day/night rhythm and sleep for longer stretches at night between 3-6 months of age. This might be a good time to try a dream feed.
It's also perfectly fine to try earlier. If your baby is older than 4 weeks but hasnât started sleeping longer at night, they probably still need to eat more frequently. In this case, the goal of a dream feed could be to let you go to bed when you want and avoid the frustration of your baby waking up just 15 minutes after youâve finally fallen asleep.
In short, no. Whether a dream feed fits into your sleep routine (for both you and your baby) depends on your current schedule and how your baby reacts. Babies can respond very differently to a dream feed. For some families, it works great, and for others, not so much. The best approach is to try it for about a week and see how it goes.
A dream feed might not be suitable if:
You and your baby go to bed around the same time (in which case, thereâs no point)
Your baby wakes up too much after a dream feed and is hard to settle back to sleep
Your baby is too sleepy to take a full feeding during a dream feed
Your baby wakes up at the same time, despite the dream feed
Your baby starts waking up too early in the morning after starting a dream feed
A dream feed might be a good fit if:
Thereâs about 2-3 hours between when you and your baby go to bed
After introducing a dream feed, your babyâs longest sleep stretch lines up with your bedtime
Your baby usually falls back asleep easily after a dream feed
A dream feed doesnât disrupt your other routines
If a dream feed doesnât work for you, thatâs totally fine. It doesnât mean something is wrongâitâs just that every baby is a little different, and this method might not be the right fit for your situation.
Thereâs no specific reason to stop offering a dream feed as long as it works for you.
It depends on whether your baby usually needs to be burped. If you typically burp your baby after feedings during the day, itâs good to do so after a dream feed as well.
By syncing your first sleep stretch with your babyâs longest sleep stretch, you can get more uninterrupted sleep hours at the beginning of the night, instead of part of the longest sleep stretch occurring while youâre awake.
Even if your baby isnât sleeping a long stretch yet, a dream feed can help prevent them from waking up 30 minutes after youâve gone to bedâoften the most frustrating time to be woken up.
Dream feeding is not a method aimed at reducing night feedings but rather slightly adjusting when the feedings occur to better align with your needs. It can often be used even for young babies, as soon as they start sleeping a longer stretch at night.
1. Happiest Baby. What is a dream feed and how do I do it? [Internet]. Los Angeles, CA: Happiest Baby; 2024., https://www.happiestbaby.com/blogs/baby/what-is-a-dream-feed-and-how-do-i-do-it
2. Pinilla T, Birch L. Help me make it through the night: behavioral entrainment of breast-fed infants' sleep patterns. Pediatrics. 1993;91(2):436-44., https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8424024/
3. Taking Cara Babies. The dream feed [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2024 Sep 2]., https://takingcarababies.com/the-dream-feed?srsltid=AfmBOop1-JMgyLTq4WgegOB8WpeLjnexpCbIsxz1OR3e3xErexDJskYG.