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Home › Articles › Sleep Issues › Getting All Four Eyes to Sleep

Getting All Four Eyes to Sleep

Tips to Help Babies and Parents of Multiples Get a Good Night's Sleep

By Shannon McKelden

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Sleep is a hot commodity for new parents. But for parents of twins (or more!), getting enough sleep can seem impossible.

While most parents don't have to be convinced that sleep is important, there are important mental and physical reasons for getting adequate rest.

"We know that not getting enough sleep affects everyone, babies and parents alike," says Dr. Jodi Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Sleeping Through the Night: How Infants, Toddlers and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night's Sleep (HarperCollins, 2005). "It affects mood, cognitive ability, behavior and basically all aspects of functioning. Parents need to function at their best during the day, especially when they have twins/multiples as they often require even more energy than singletons."

With one baby, two-parent families can share responsibilities, allowing each to get a bit more sleep. But Carly Layton of Bronxville, N.Y., found tag-team night duty was impossible with twins. "The main difficulty was ... both my husband [and I] had to get up multiple times per night because there is really no way for one person to do it (or if there is, we still haven't found it)," she says.

Another argument for controlling sleep issues with multiples is the effect on siblings. With chaotic sleep patterns, older siblings may be forced to curtail activities as one of the infants (or their parents) is always napping.

Tips to Sleep On
The consensus of experts and parents of multiples alike seems to be that establishing a sleep routine is most important.

"From early on, parents need to keep their twins/multiples on the same schedule, with the same bedtimes, naptimes and wake times," Dr. Mindell says. "Also, during the night, if one wakes up to feed, parents should definitely wake the other to feed. Nothing is worse than getting up at 2 a.m. to feed one baby, head back to bed and then be woken a half-hour later."


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