These newborn sleep pages are intended to get you started in the first challenging few weeks of life. But this sleep work will be most useful in your family's life if you then move on to the comprehensive Possums Baby Sleep Program, starting with The essentials, here!

It's awful to find yourself so desperately tired that you've had to start with these emergency sleep pages! You've just come through the birth, which in itself is such a huge thing, body and soul. Now you've got an amazing little human being in your arms, needing you. And you're not getting sleep.

You'll find strategies in this section on a newborn sleep emergency to get started with if you are extremely sleep deprived, or very upset and worried about your newborn's sleep. You can begin some things straight away, before moving on to more comprehensive information in The Possums Baby Sleep Program.

It might help to know that for many parents, what feels like a sleep emergency right now is no longer an emergency after just a week or two of trying out these new strategies.

Please see your local GP if you think either yourself or your little one might have a medical condition or health problem which is affecting sleep. A newborn might have very disrupted sleep if they have a fever or viral infection, for instance. A newborn who isn’t getting enough milk might also have very broken sleep. Some parents (mostly - though not always - the mother) are in such severe sleep crisis that they are best receiving hospital or residential support.

Recommended resources

The body clock: baby sleep regulator #1

Sleep pressure: baby sleep regulator #2

Make sure your newborn is exposed to daylight and activity from the same time each morning when you're in a sleep emergency

How to change #1 cause of newborn sleep problems: hunger

How to change #2 cause of newborn sleep problems: body clock not in sync with yours yet

Are you in a sleep emergency and lying awake even when your newborn is asleep?