What is a dream feed?

If you search the internet, you’ll find a lot of variations on the definition of what a dream feed is. This is how I define it: A Dream Feed involves picking up your sleeping baby right before YOU go to bed, usually between 10-12pm, and giving baby a top-off feeding. Gently hold your sleeping baby in a feeding position and try to stimulate the rooting reflex by stroking your baby’s mouth and offering your baby a breast or bottle. Many babies can feed in this way without waking up (Hogg and Blau 2005).

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

The Scientific Argument for Dream Feeds

Newborns awaken easily and frequently, in part because they are hungry. As they approach 6-8 weeks of age, they begin taking in more of their nutrition during the day, which helps them start stretching that first block of sleep longer and longer. Many parents are surprised that their baby starts requiring an earlier bedtime, around 7-8pm.

Our brains are designed to prioritize the most restorative stage of sleep – NREM3, or deep, slow wave sleep – during the first few sleep cycles of the night. So if you could protect only one portion of your nightly sleep from interruption, it should be the first 4-5 hours of sleep. If a dream feed will help you to sleep a bit more during YOUR first block of sleep, then a dream feed may be worth a try.

Does dream feeding work?

Many parents who have tried it have been pleased with the results. Generally speaking, we expect longer stretches of sleep to develop as baby grows. And somewhere around 6-8 weeks, that’s exactly what happens when babies are given the opportunity to go to bed earlier and earlier. When all goes well, young infants develop more consolidated sleep patterns at night.

One very small study tested dream feeds as part of a three-component intervention. In this study, researchers randomly assigned 13 parents to employ all three of these practices:

Administer a big feed to newborns sometime between 10pm and midnight.

Gradually lengthen intervals between night feedings by first “carrying out alternative caretaking behaviors” like re-swaddling, diapering, and walking.

“Maximize environmental differences between day and nighttime” by minimizing infant exposure to social stimulation and artificial light at night.

At eight weeks postpartum, all 13 of the parents who had carried out this three-part strategy reported that their babies were sleeping quietly each night between midnight and 5am.

By contrast, only 3 of the 13 parents in the control group reported this milestone (Pinilla and Birch 1993).

So there’s reason to think that the intervention was helpful, but it’s likely that dream feeding was just one of several contributing factors.

Weighing the pros and cons of dream feeding

Dream feeds are a good bet for most families, especially when combined with other sleep-friendly practices.

Just because there have not been any randomized, controlled experiments to determine if dream feeds work, it shouldn’t deter you from trying it.

If your baby is getting enough to eat overall, dream feeds might be helpful, and they couldn’t hurt - not if you avoid waking your baby.

Pros

The post-feed sleep block may last longer than usual, giving you more opportunity to grab some of that NREM3 sleep. Even an extra half hour could have an important impact on your health and well-being.

In combination with other tactics – like protecting your baby from artificial lights at night and using white noise to minimize other forms of stimulation – the practice might help speed up the development of more mature nighttime sleep patterns.

Cons

The tactic is inappropriate for babies who are underweight, or otherwise not thriving. Consult your pediatrician before attempting.

If you regularly wake your baby to administer a feed, you might be reinforcing your baby’s tendency to wake frequently, making it harder for him or her to develop more consolidated sleep patterns as time goes by. (This reasoning explains why the dream feed can work for a while, but then needs to be stopped as you approach the next developmental leap.)

When should a parent stop dream feeding?

The optimum time for this tool to work is between 6 weeks and 4 months. As a baby approaches 4 – 4.5 months, their sleep changes to more adult-like sleep; they have partial arousals throughout the night, especially after 12 – 1 am. Your baby will gradually lengthen their sleep without the need for feeding early in the night.

Our approach to helping baby sleep should change, too. At this point it becomes more important to put your baby to bed, allow them to fall asleep on their own, and allow them to put themselves back to sleep without intervention.

This does not mean you ignore feeding the entire night. However, answering every arousal with a feeding is likely to encourage baby to wake frequently. If baby is taking in enough calories during the daytime hours, then the need for a nighttime feeding should diminish over time.

Your baby may still wake up, but they are capable of learning how to put themselves back to sleep without intervention.